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Part III. — Seventh Annual Report 



in their consideration it is necessary to bear in mind one or two circum- 

 stances. In the first place, the figures referring to the fish landed by 

 fishermen, relate merely to line caught fish, and do not include the fish, 

 such as herring, sprat, &c, caught by net ; and, of course, no cognisance 

 is taken of the shell-fish and other products of the shores and territorial 

 waters, the harvest of which is reaped by the line fishermen alone. 

 During a large portion of the year the East Coast fishermen, especially 

 those with the best equipped boats, are engaged in the great herring 

 fisheries, frequently at quite fe other parts of the coast, and to a large 

 extent the line fishing is carried on for a considerable portion of the 

 year by the smaller fishing boats, which cannot venture far to sea, and 

 are often prevented by the vicissitudes of the weather from fishing at all. 

 On the other hand, the steam- trawlers, large powerful vessels, are in a 

 great degree independent of the weather, and can pursue their calling 

 when the fishermen's boats are lying idle on the beach or in harbour. 

 As a consequence the trawlers may, and do obtain a considerable quantity 

 of fish at great distances from shore ; and although particulars as to the 

 fishing grounds are wanting, it is safe to assume that fishermen obtain 

 relatively a far greater proportion of their fish from inshore waters than 

 do the trawlers. 



It appears also that during 1888 a much larger proportion of the East 

 Coast steam beam-trawlers were engaged in fishing on the West Coast 

 than was the case in 1887 ; and this no doubt largely accounts for the 

 falling off in the quantity of trawl caught fish landed on the East Coast 

 during 1888. 



3. Statistics showing the Quantities of Line caught Fish obtained 

 prom the Areas where Trawling is prohibited, and the adjacent 

 Areas where Trawling is allowed. 



The statistics set forth in Table F. (p. 118) may be considered of prob- 

 ably the greatest importance in relation to the question of the influence 

 of beam-trawling in the territorial waters upon the productiveness of the 

 line fishing in these waters. The area to which these statistics refer 

 extends from the south side of the Firth of Forth in the neighbourhood 

 of North Berwick to Skateraw, about 7 miles south of Aberdeen, and thus 

 includes the Stonehaven, Montrose, and Anstruther districts, and the 

 greater portion of the Leith district. Within this area certain portions 

 of the territorial waters have been closed to beam-trawlers, and certain 

 portions have remained open for the prosecution of that mode of fishing. 

 The area where beam-trawling has been prohibited includes the whole 

 of the Anstruther district, that portion of the Leith district from which 

 these statistics were obtained, and the portion of the Montrose district 

 south of Red Head in Forfarshire. The northern portion of the 

 Montrose district, and the whole of the Stonehaven district, have been, 

 on the other hand, left open to the operations of beam trawlers. The 

 period over which these statistics have been collected has been the same, 

 except in the case of the Stonehaven district. In the Leith, Anstruther, 

 and Montrose districts the records have been kept since the 1st April 

 1887; the Stonehaven records refer only to 1888. 



In order to institute a comparison between the different districts in 

 the two years under review, it is necessary to limit attention to the 

 corresponding periods in each of the two years. Thus when the year 

 ' 1887' or ' 1888' is referred to, it will be understood to mean, not the 

 whole year, but only the nine months, April to December inclusive. 



