of the Fisher)/ Board for Scotland. 



243 



ally considerable quantities of young herrings. The difficulties in 

 enforcing the Act were, however, very great. The trawlers or seiners 

 resorted to all sorts of shifts and expedients to carry on their operations 

 while avoiding detection. When pursued they usually cut the net 

 adrift, or threw it overboard, and the mere seizure of the nets found in 

 the water had little effect in repressing the practice. The naval 

 superintendent in command of H.M.S. " Porcupine," with a crew of 60 

 men, reported that " although he had unlimited authority under the 

 Act to put dow T n trawling, he had not been able to do so, and that more 

 force was required even to suppress it in the confined area of Loch 

 Fyne," which, however, it was impossible to grant him.* In 1852 the 

 Act was carried out, as far as possible, with great vigour, and 1853 was 

 also " a year of repression," but it was less effective, partly in conse- 

 quence of an unfortunate accident which occurred from firearms having 

 been used on board one of the boats of the " Porcupine," engaged in 

 enforcing the Act, whereby a fisherman was w T ouncled. The gunner and 

 one of the marines were tried at Inveraray for this offence, and were 

 sentenced to three months' imprisonment, afterwards commuted. In 

 1854 the outbreak of the Russian war caused the gunboat to be with- 

 drawn ; the Act fell largely into abeyance, and the use of the seine 

 revived in 1855 and 1856.t 



The Board of Fisheries declared that the Act " had not been found to 

 work satisfactorily," owing to certain defects in it which were specified, J 

 and a Commission of Inquiry on the duties of the Board of fisheries, 

 which was appointed by the Lords of the Treasury in 1856, also 

 examined into the working of the Act and reported against it. " The 

 Act," they said, "has failed to accomplish its object, and has been unfor- 

 tunate in its consequences. The difficulty of obtaining the legal 

 evidence necessary for conviction has given complete immunity to 

 offenders, whilst the successful continuance of unlawful conduct has 

 tended to familiarise men with law- breaking, and to demoralise them. 

 The evidence of all parties concurs in declaring that trawling is as 

 openly and extensively practised as if it were legal ; but the fact is also 

 established that the amount of herrings actually caught in Loch Fyne 

 has largely increased. . . . We earnestly recommend the repeal of 

 a Statute which has no other result than to keep a considerable popula- 

 tion in the habitual and successful violation of the law." § In conse- 

 quence of this report the subject was brought before the notice of the 

 (ji-overnment with the view of dealing with it by legislation, the Act 

 meantime remaining only nominally in force. || Then an event occurred 

 which hastened action. In the autumn of 1858 the shoals of herrings, 

 which had for a long period been absent from upper Loch Fyne, made 

 their way up as far as Inveraray (the headquarters of the drifters), and 

 they were followed thither by the seine baats which brought on a 

 collision between the two classes of fishermen. In 1859 the same thing 

 happened, and the drift-net fishermen then combined to put down 

 seining ; they took arms into their boats and threatened to enforce the 

 Act for themselves.^]" The authorities thereupon circulated notices that 

 trawling for herrings was illegal, and they stationed a gunboat and 

 fishery officers in Loch Fyne so as to preclude any trawlers from passing 

 up beyond Otter Spit into the upper loch. 



* Report by the Commissioners for the British Fisheries for 1859, p. 5. 

 t Ibid, for 1853, p. 6 ; for 1859, p. 5. Report on the Herring Fisheries of Scotland 

 by Buckland and Walpole (1878), p. 2. 



X Report by the Commissioners (1859), p. 1. 



§ Report by Messrs. Bmamy Prico and St. John and Admiral Sullivan (1857). 



1! Report of Commissioners for the British Fisheries for 1859, p. 5. 



Hlbid. 



