of the Fisher ij Board for Scotland. 



xlv 



ENQUIRIES INTO COMPLAINTS OF DAMAGE TO 

 BOATS OR GEAR. 



Under the Sea Fisheries (Scotland) Amendment Act, 1885, the 

 Board's officers are invested with quasi-judicial powers in cases of 

 complaint by fishermen of damage to their boats or gear by other 

 vessels, and during the year under review the number of such cases 

 investigated was 32, This number was 9 less than in the preceding 

 year, and is the lowest recorded since 1906. 



Damage to, or loss of, nets formed the principal ground of complaint 

 last year, 21 cases of this nature having been investigated, while the 

 complaints of damage to lines numbered 9. The two remaining cases 

 referred to damage sustained in collisions. 



Seventeen of the complaints — 9 of damage to lines and 8 of damage to 

 nets — were lodged against trawlers, in three of which foreign trawlers 

 were involved. The latter were alleged to have destroyed a number 

 of nets belonging to the boats engaged in cod-net fishing in the Moray 

 Firth during the spring, but in only one instance were the complainers 

 successful in obtaioing compensation, all efforts to obtain redress in 

 the other two having proved abortive. Steam drif tei-s were implicated 

 in 10 cases — all of damage to nets— while in 4 cases H.M. warships 

 were alleged to have been at faidt. On the latter cases being investi- 

 gated, however, it was found that three of the complaining boats had 

 failed to exhibit the regulation lights, and were consequently at fault 

 themselves ; in the fourth case the Admiralty admitted liability and 

 paid the claim at the amount assessed. 



Settlements were arranged in 14 cases. Of the remaining cases a 

 considerable number were allowed to drop, in some cases probably 

 because the evidence was too slender to justify further procedure, 

 while in others the damage was found to have been unavoidable, or to 

 have been due to the negligence of the complainers. 



The amount of damage assessed by the officers was about £303, of 

 which about £71 was recovered. 



PROSECUTIONS FOR ILLEGAL TRAWLING. 



The number of prosecutions for alleged illegal trawling undertaken 

 in 1912 was 36, in 30 of which convictions were obtained. In 1911 

 the numbers were 53 and 49, but the averages for the two years are 

 practically the same as those for the past ten years. The numbers 

 fluctuate violently from year to year, so that it is only possible to 

 ascertain whether their tendency is to increase or decrease by com- 

 paring the averages for series of years. Judged by this test, it would 

 appear that illegal trawling is now effectively held in check. 



Of the total number of cases, all involving the ordinary steam trawler, 

 1 was detected in the Firth of Clyde, 6 on the Lewis coasts (1 in Broad- 

 bay, and 5 in Loch Roag) ; 3 off Foula, 3 off Fair Isle, and 4 off the 

 Shetland Isles; 11 in the Moray Firth — 4 British and 7 foreign — and 

 7 on the coast between the Moray Firth and the Firth of Tay. No 

 detection was made in the vicinity of the Firth of Forth in 1912, and 

 no foreigner was detected outside of the Moray Firth. 



The decrease in the numbers of cases as compared with those tried 

 in 1911 is in great pare referable to Fair Isle, where only 3 detections 



