6 



Fortieth Annual Report 



cure. That the lot of our principal rivals — Norway and Holland — 

 was as bad, if not worse, was poor consolation, as their competition 

 was therefore all the keener. It is true that the first signs 

 of a downward trend in working expenses had become manifest, 

 but the fall was insignificant as compared with. the drop in the prices 

 realised for herrings, while as the result of the continued depression 

 the financial resources of the industry were appreciably reduced. 



Fresh difficulties arose as the season advanced, and except at 

 Shetland, and to a less degree in the Firth of Clyde, the season's 

 operations can only be described as a failure. To begin with, 

 the coal dispute, which lasted throughout the second quarter of 

 the year, held up the steam drifters during the early summer fishing 

 and retarded operations and increased costs generally ; while to make 

 matters worse, it was found, when it was possible to conduct opera- 

 tions on a normal scale, that herrings were very scarce and in extremely 

 poor condition. This state of matters appears to have been associated 

 with abnormal hydrographical conditions in the North Sea, to which 

 further reference is made later. The shortage in the catch, it 

 is true, stimulated competition and so increased prices, but this 

 was insufficient to recompense fishermen for the short supply, while 

 it practically destroyed what little chance curers had of realising a 

 profit. 



The East Anglian fishing, which in 1920 to some extent com- 

 pensated Scottish fishermen for the poor season in home waters, 

 unfortunately also proved a failure last year, being characterised by 

 the same features of scarcity of herrings and poorness of quality as 

 the Scottish fishing. 



The white-fishing industry was in little better case, and although 

 it had not to contend with such a combination of adverse factors as 

 the herring industry, the results of the year's operations were the 

 reverse of satisfactory. In common with the latter industry, it 

 suffered severely during the protracted coal dispute owing to the 

 difficulty of obtaining bunkers, and the excessively high, price which 

 had to be paid for such supplies as were available. In contra-distinc- 

 tion to that industry, it is dependent mainly upon the home demand, 

 and the general depression in trade and the resulting unemployment 

 naturally affected that demand. The prices received by the fishermen 

 for white fish have now fallen almost to pre-war level, but working 

 expenses have not responded in anything like the same ratio, with 

 the result that the proceeds of a fishing trip too • frequently are 

 insufficient to cover the outlay for wages, fuel, ice, upkeep, etc., and it 

 is understood that at the great trawling port of Aberdeen only one- 

 third of the vessels at work succeeded in clearing expenses. A 

 contributing factor was the preponderance of small and immature fish 

 in the landings of haddocks and whitings. The abundance of these 

 small fish throughout the year was very striking, as, in addition to 



