of the Fisher// Board for Scotland. 



able time elapses before the net is hauled. But it does not appear to 

 be a frequent occurrence, so far as could be ascertained by careful 

 enquiry, and from the circumstance that the fishery officer of the district, 

 who was requested at the commencement of last season to notify when 

 cases were reported of the destruction of large quantities of small 

 herrings by the seine net, so that the " Garland," which was working in 

 Loch Fyne and in the Clyde last year, might trawl over the ground for 

 the dead herrings which had fallen to the bottom, did not communicate 

 any such case. In the ordinary use of the seine net it would be some- 

 times difficult to avoid encircling a body of small fish, but it is obviously 

 not to the interest of the seine-net fishermen to do so, because the 

 labour of shooting, and especially of hauling, the net is very consider- 

 able ; and when the " fire " in the water is strong the men are usually 

 able to tell whether the herrings are too small to be worth the trouble of 

 shooting the net. One of the chief signs of the presence of herrings, 

 much relied on in dark nights, by which the fishermen are guided in 

 putting out their seine, is what they term "fire," or ''firing" or 

 "burning" — i.e., the luminous flash or trail caused by the herring 

 darting through water containing phosphorescent organisms, especially 

 when suddenly disturbed ; and while the boat sails about in quest of 

 fish one of the crew is stationed at the bow, peering into the water and 

 striking the front of the boat at short intervals with a mallet, or by 

 letting the anchor fall on the gunwale, to start the herrings in the water 

 below. There are other signs,* but this is a very common one ; and it is 

 stated that when the "fire is strong" the fishermen can tell not only the 

 approximate depth and abundance of the herrings but their approximate 

 size. On one of the nights I spent on board a herring boat the time 

 was passed as above described, without the net being once shot, because 

 the herrings were judged to be too small to warrant the trial. The 

 men, it may be stated, were unaware of the object of the visit. But 

 when the " fire " is not " strong," or when other signs have to be 

 depended on, it must happen that bodies of small herrings are some- 

 times encircled in the way described ; and when the net is brought to 

 the side and the nature of the catch discovered the net is slacked and 

 the herrings set free. In other cases, no doubt, these smaller herrings 

 are mingled with marketable fish which are secured and the rest 

 discarded. 



Another allegation against the seine net is that by its bursting when 

 a dense body of fish is encircled, or when it is impossible to remove all 

 the herrings enclosed, large quantities of dead herrings sink to the 

 bottom and cause pollution of the water, so that the herrings desert the 

 spot, and may even do so in future seasons. It is not uncommon for 

 rupture of the net to take place under the circumstances mentioned, and 

 in such cases, especially if a considerable time has elapsed, many of the 

 herrings are dead. In other cases herrings may be thrown overboard 

 when they are found to be unsaleable owing to their inferior quality ; 

 this often depends upon the quantity of larger fish which may be secured 

 earlier in the night. The same thing may happen with drifters also, 

 and drift nets are sometimes lost owing to the weight of fish they 

 contain. In one case which occurred near the head of the loch the 

 "Garland " afterwards trawled over the ground with a fine-meshed net. 

 In three hauls 48 dead and decomposing herrings were brought up, all 



* E.g., "Frying" or "bubbling," caused by the rising of bubbles of gas or "air" 

 from the shoals, and visible when the weather is calm ; oily appearance on the surface, 

 no doubt due to excrementitious matters ; " playing " on the surface, when the herrings, 

 probably pursued by enemies, rise to the surface and move swiftly, furrowing the water 

 in all directions, the noise produced being comparable to that caused by a heavy shower 

 of rain. 



