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Part III. — Seventh Annual Report 



Most of the boats are owned by the men who go fishing, but there are 

 three or four boats which are owned by others than fishermen. In all 

 cases one share is reckoned as the boat's share, and is credited to the 

 owner, while the remaining two shares belong to the two men or the 

 one man who fishes in the boat. In the summer when the boats are not 

 far distant, and when the weather is settled, one man oftener than two 

 goes shrimp-fishing, but in the winter always two men are on board the 

 fluke trawler. The fishermen, however, allege that it pays much better for 

 two men to be in the boat. Doubtless this will be the case so far as 

 the owner is concerned, for his share is the same in either case ; but there 

 may be room for doubt in the case of the one man who receives two-thirds 

 of the produce of the fishing. 



The herring fishing was very general thirty years ago in the Solway, 

 and it was prosecuted during May, June, and July, and during September, 

 October, and November. Now it is not nearly as regularly followed. 

 Last year, for about a month or so, there was a good fishing of herrings, 

 but it is nothing like the value of flounder-trawling. 



The fact of the Solway lying between Cumberland and the South Coast 

 of Scotland makes it unique, in so far as the laws in regard to fishing are 

 not the same in both countries. The subject of trawling there is in an 

 entirely different position from that in any of the inshore waters of Scot- 

 land. The swiftness of the tidal currents prevents line fishing in the 

 upper reaches of the Firth, and compels the fishermen to catch flat-fish 

 either by fixed engines or by trawling. Besides, trawl-net fishing seems 

 the only method by which shrimping can be carried on in the Solway. 



Most of the flat-fish and many of the shrimps are small. The Annan 

 fishermen, acting in their own interest, riddle the shrimps, and return the 

 small ones alive to the sea, and also throw overboard the smaller fish. 

 At Creetown, on the other hand, the selection by riddling does not take 

 place till the shrimps are boiled, the result being that great injury is done 

 to the possible crustacean life which might be present in the neighbouring 

 sea. 



It might be advisable to enact (1) that all flat-fish under a certain size be 

 returned alive to the sea, not only by the trawlers but also by all owners 

 of fixed engines ; (2) that all shrimps be riddled in a sieve or riddle of a 

 fixed mesh, and that the smaller forms be returned alive to the sea. Both 

 of these provisions would be helpful to the fishing communities, and 

 would render obligatory on all a policy which the greater number of the 

 Solway fishermen pursue. In this way the destruction of immature forms 

 would be prevented, and the presence of small forms would not detract 

 from the market value of the catch.* 



V. ABSTRACT OF A REPORT ON THE FISHERY STATISTICS 

 OF SCOTLAND. By Alfred Daniell, M.A., D.Sc. 

 (Prepared by T. Wemyss Fulton, M.B.) 



During an investigation by the Scientific Committee into the statistics 

 of the Scottish fisheries, it became evident that in many respects the 

 present system required reconsideration and amendment. The Com- 

 mittee having requested Professor Cossar Ewart to take steps to inquire 

 into the alleged incompleteness of the statistical returns from certain 

 parts of the coast, it was discovered that the official records in the case 

 * Vide the note on the French Shrimp Fishery, p. 394. 



