Appendices to Second Annual Report 



APPENDIX III. 



SUGGESTIONS for the IMPROVEMENT of the FISHERIES in 

 the ANNAN FISHERY DISTRICT. By an Old Fisherman. 

 July 1883. 



The 14th section of 9th George IV. chap. 39 (1828), should be repealed, 

 as by that section the Sol way is exempted from the operation of the Act; 

 and as 7 and 8 Victoria, chap. 95 (1844), is an Act to amend the 9th 

 George IV. chap. 39, the Sol way is unfortunately excluded from the opera- 

 tion of that Act also. The 7th and 8th Victoria, chap. 95, makes it an 

 offence ' to fish for fish of the salmon kind ' within one mile from low 

 water mark seawards, and the 25 th section of ' The Salmon Fisheries 

 (Scotland) Act, 1868, incorporates the 7th and 8th Victoria in it. If the 

 14th section of the Act of 1828 was repealed, it would then be an offence 

 to fish for fish of the salmon kind, within one mile seawards of low water 

 mark in the Solway. I would also suggest that some more explicit defini- 

 tion should be given as to what ' fishing for and attempting to take salmon ' 

 means, with reference to certain recent decisions in which it was held 

 that it was not ' an offence for persons to take salmon while fishing for 

 ' white fish.' Now the law should be more explicit as to what ought to 

 constitute an offence in attempting to take salmon, as for instance, parties 

 setting small stake nets which every person knows are as likely to take 

 salmon as white fish, and are generally set more for that purpose than for 

 the capture of white fish. The Commissioners in 1877 or 1878 inspected 

 what are termed paidle or white fish stake nets in the Annan district, and 

 pronounced them salmon nets, and gave an order of removal to each 

 party who then were using them. The foregoing nets do not only kill 

 large quantities of salmon, but impede the run of salmon, and throw 

 them out of their course, and they have already been declared illegal 

 in the Court of Session during the summer, consequently must be 

 illegal during winter. Notwithstanding the different decisions, they still 

 persist in using these nets, and I would suggest that as a whole they 

 should be abolished as recommended by Messrs Walpole and Young 

 in their Report of 1881. They write as follows: — 'We recommend 

 ' that all Paidle nets to the east of the old house of Carsethorn in 

 ' Arbigland should be declared illegal.' 



When a person goes out with a boat and draught net to fish for white 

 fish, sparlings, &c, he proceeds to fish only where salmon are to be caught, 

 therefore I think it ought to be made an offence for a person to enter the 

 bounds of a salmon fishery with any nets that are likely to take salmon, or 

 even to land any such nets thereon, without the leave of the proprietor or 

 lessee of the fishing, as white fish can be caught with trawl nets which will 

 not take salmon ; I would also cause it to be illegal to fish for salmon with 

 draught nets in any estuary or frith within a defined distance, say one 

 mile from the mouth or entrance to a river, and also where the water, in 

 an estuary or firth, is less than a defined width, also say one mile, so that 

 the nets could not cross from side to side. 



The penalties should be higher for fishing without leave, and the 



