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Part III. — Eighteenth Annual Report 



V.— KEPORT OF AN ENQUIRY ON THE ACTION OF THE 

 HERRING SEINE-NET. 



By T. Wemyss Fulton, M.D., F.R.S.E., Scientific Superintendent. 



Introduction. 



In recent years complaints have been made respecting the alleged 

 injurious action of the seine net used for the capture of herrings in Loch 

 Fyne and off the coast of Ayrshire, and the results of an enquiry on this 

 subject are contained in the following report, especially as concerns the 

 capture of immature herrings and the destruction of herring spawn 

 deposited on the bottom. The investigation was begun some years ago 

 at Ballantrae Bank, but owing to the failure of the fishing there in suc- 

 cessive seasons, its progress was delayed until the present year, when the 

 herrings returned in considerable numbers. This method of fishing for 

 herrings has formed the subject of legislation and of several previous 

 enquiries which must be here alluded to. 



The seine net appears to have been first introduced into the Scottish 

 herring fishery about the year 1838, when it was employed in Loch 

 Fyne. Its use gradually extended, and it became known locally as the 

 " herring trawl," the system of fishing being called " trawling for 

 herrings " ; but these terms are improper, since the net is in reality a 

 seine, without a distinct " cod " or pocket, and not a trawl. By the 

 year 1846 or thereabouts the seine had come into pretty common use in 

 Loch Fyne, and disputes and conflicts soon arose between the " trawlers " 

 or seiners, and those pursuing the ordinary and time-honoured system 

 of fishing for herrings with the drift net. The drift-net fishermen 

 alleged that the seine or " trawl" was injurious for many reasons ; and 

 this opinion being supported by the leading fish curers and merchants, 

 an Act of Parliament was passed in 1851, with the concurrence of the 

 Board of British White Herring Fishery, by which the employment of 

 the seine for catching herrings was made illegal, the only net recognised 

 as legal and proper being the drift net with the standard meshes of one 

 inch from knot to knot.* 



Under this statute the Board of Fisheries took prompt measures to 

 suppress the use of the herring seine net in Loch Fyne and also in the Firth 

 of Forth, where, being used for the capture of sprats, it also took occasion- 



* 14 and 15 Vict., c. 26. An Act to Amend the Acts relating to the British White 

 Herring Fishery. Section 6 vtfas as follows: — "That whenever the herring fishery is 

 commenced or carried on it shall not be lawful for any person to nse for the purpose of 

 taking herrings any drag net, or sea net mounted for trawling, or any sweep, circle, ring 

 net, or scringe net, or any net prohibited by the said recited Acts or any of them, or 

 any net of any kind or description whatsoever other than the usual drift net, or to use 

 any drift net by dragging the same through the water in the manner of trawling ; nor 

 shall it be lawful to take or have on board of any fishing vessel or boat, during the time 

 of the herring fishery, any net of any description other than drift nets ; and every such 

 net other than drift nets, used as aforesaid, or found on board of any fishing vessel or 

 boat during the herring fishery, or found on shore, or in the possession of any person for 

 the purpose of being so used, shall be liable to be seized by any superintendent of the 

 herring fishery, or person acting under his order, or by any officer of the fishery ; and 

 any person using or having on board any fishing vessel or boat, or having on shore for the 

 purpose of being u?ed as aforesaid, any net contrary to the provisions of the said recited 

 Acts or any of them, or this Act, shall be subject and liable to the penalties imposed in 

 that behalf by the said recited Acts or any of them, and any net so seized shall be liable 

 to forfeiture in terms of the said Acts." 



