260 



Part Ut.' — Eighteenth Annual Re/port 



the shoal " — i.e., it breaks up and scatters the shoals, diverting them 

 from their course to the spawning grounds. 4. When prosecuted on the 

 spawning ground — Ballantrae Bank — it disturbs the herring-spawn on 

 the bottom, and destroys it. 5. That it cannot be beneficially carried on 

 alongside the trammel-net fishing, because it damages the trammel nets 

 in the same way as beam trawling damages the lines and nets of other 

 fishermen ; and that since trammel-net fishing is the old and native 

 mode of fishing on Ballantrae Bank, and seine trawling was introduced 

 by stranger fishermen and is prosecuted by them only, it should be pro- 

 hibited during the months of February and March. It was decided that 

 an investigation should be made at Ballantrae Bank on the action of 

 the seine net, with especial reference to the alleged destruction of the 

 deposited spawn of the herring and the capture or destruction of imma- 

 ture herrings. Arrangements were accordingly made in each year to 

 carry out this investigation, but owing to the repeated failure of the 

 fishing very few seine-net boats carried on their operations there, and 

 the observations could not be made until last year and this, when the 

 herrings returned to the bank in considerable numbers, and seine-net 

 fishing was resumed. The work has been materially assisted by Mr. R. 

 Duthie, the fishery officer of the district, who has at various times 

 given valuable aid to the enquiry. 



The herring fishery at this part of the coast is very different from 

 what it is in Loch Fyne. It is prosecuted in February and March by 

 local trammel boats and by seine -net boats, chiefly from Argyllshire, and 

 it is liable to sudden interruption from storms. The great majority of 

 the herrings taken are ripe and spawning ; it is a fishery for spawning- 

 herrings. The bank, which is of an irregular elongated form, lies off 

 the coast between Bennan Head and the southern part of Ballantrae, 

 and is parallel to it. It begins about one mile from the shore, and 

 extends to a distance of somewhat over three miles from it. The depth 

 of water ranges from about seven to thirteen fathoms, and the bank is 

 composed principally of stones, gravel, and coarse sand. That is the 

 position and extent of Ballantrae Bank proper, although an elevation of 

 the bottom extends more or less from Girvan to Loch Ryan. 



The fishery was at one time of considerable importance, and was 

 carried on at the bank and in its neighbourhood by a large number of 

 drift and trammel-net boats, many of which came from distant parts of 

 the coast. From the same influences that caused the Acts to be passed 

 for the suppression of seining, the Ballantrae winter fishing was put a 

 stop to from 1860 to 1868 by reason of clauses in the Acts of 1860 and 

 1865 establishing a close-time from 1st January (or 1st February in the 

 Act of 1865) until 31st May between Ardnamurchan Point and the Mull 

 of Galloway.* This was done on the supposition that Ballantrae Bank 

 was the spawning ground for Loch Fyne herrings. But after 1868, on 

 the repeal of the Acts, the fishing was resumed, and was frequently very 

 successful. The quantity and value of the herrings caught at the winter 

 fishing off the coast in each of the last twenty-five years are shown in 

 the following Table, with the number of the boats engaged : — 



*23 and 24 Vict., c. 92, s. 4 ; 28 Vict., c. 22, s. 2. 



[Table. 



