Fishery Board for Scotland. 



xv 



Anstruther, Pittenweem, and St Monance to be dredged by the Scientific 

 fishermen, and ' what was obtained by the dredging was put into Inves ^ions. 

 ' seven bottles, and examined by Dr Allman, Professor of Natural Investigation 

 ' History in the University of Edinburgh,' who reported, ' that gjjjjje * *y 

 ' no evidence is afforded in favour of the view that the mode of Fisheries. 

 ' fishing by which they were obtained is likely to exert an injurious 

 ' influence on the spawning ground of fish ;' adding, that ' the only 

 ' instance in which any of the specimens contained matter which 

 ' could unhesitatingly be asserted to be fish spawn, was one in 

 ' which the substance examined is stated to have been taken out 

 ' the stomach of a flounder, and one, therefore, which throws no 

 ' light upon the question regarding the operation of certain modes 

 ' of fishing injuring the spawning grounds.' 



Although the Commissioners seem to have been perfectly No continuous 

 conscious of the great want of information as to the habits of the ^rrS^onb 18 

 food fishes, they always, as soon as the complaints ceased, abandoned Board. ° U >Y 

 the inquiries they had instituted, so that little or no useful know- 

 ledge was gained; and as a result sooner or later a new agitation 

 began amongst the fishermen, to be followed by another inquiry, 

 or the appointment of a Commission, and so it has continued 

 until the present day. Had the Board been provided with the 

 necessary funds to carry on continuous investigations as to the mode 

 and time of spawning, the nature of the eggs, and of the food and 

 migrations of the herring, and other useful fishes, not only would 

 an immense amount of valuable information have been obtained, 

 but the great expense of Commissions of Inquiry might have been 

 avoided. It cannot, however, be matter for surprise that unin- 

 terrupted investigations were not carried on by the Fishery sufficient 

 Commissioners twenty years ago, when it is remembered that at F g t nd ^ 0 ^ d 

 the present time, notwithstanding the example of other States, to new Board, 

 the influence of the Fishery Exhibitions, and the united demand 

 of all interested in the Scottish Fisheries for more knowledge, 

 the Treasury have not yet provided the necessary funds. 



One of the many agitations arose in 1860, and as a result Pro- Effects of 

 fessor Allman and Dr Lyon Playfair, C.B. (both Fishery Commis- ^J^^f* 

 sioners) were appointed to inquire into the effects of beam trawling u e 0 e ' 

 on the herring spawn deposited in the ' Fluke Hole ' off Pittenweem, 

 and about the same time Dr Lyon Playfair, C.B., and Vice-Admiral 

 Henry Dundas (also a Fishery Commissioner) were requested ' to 

 ' make investigations into the claims and conditions of the sprat inquiry as to 

 ' fishermen ' of the Firth of Forth. The result of this latter in- g la ^? s \ er 

 quiry was that regulations were passed which confined the sprat men. 1S 

 fishermen to the waters west of a ' line ' drawn from the beacon at 

 North Ferry to the beacon at South Queensferry, passing to the 

 westward of Inchgarvie. 



The agitation continuing, a Royal Commission, consisting of Dr Royal Com- 

 Lyon Playfair, C.B., Professor Huxley, F.E.S., and Lieut-Colonel C. ^poSted in 

 Francis Maxwell, was appointed in 1862, to inquire as to ' the 1862. 

 ' operation of the Acts relating to Trawling for Herring on the 

 ' Coasts of Scotland.' The Report of this Commission is especially 

 interesting, because it contains the results of the inquiries made 

 by Professor Allman during the winter and spring of 1862, as to 

 the nature of herring ova, and also because it includes a valuable 



