of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



33 



It is recognised that during the present financial stringency it is 

 impossible to devote more than a bare minimum of public funds to 

 oyster development, but the Board trust that it may eventually be 

 possible to carry out the scheme on the full scale originally 

 contemplated. 



5. Use of Aircraft for Locating Fish Shoals. 



As stated in the last annual report the Board, in 1920, approached 

 the Air Ministry with a view to testing the utility of aircraft for the 

 detection of shoals of fish in Scottish waters. 



The matter was pursued in 1921, and eventually after consider- 

 able difficulty, owing to reductions in the Air Service, an airship flight 

 over the North Sea was arranged to start from Pulham in July with 

 a member of the Board's scientific staff and one of their fishery officers 

 on board to act as observers. Unfortunately, owing to a mishap to 

 another airship, necessitating sudden and drastic alterations in the 

 Air Ministry's general programme of nights, the cruise had to be 

 cancelled at the last moment, and no other airship being available 

 efforts were made to obtain the use of an aeroplane, seaplane or 

 flying boat, but without success. 



The Air Ministry have indicated that the Board may rely on their 

 continued co-operation, and it is hoped that a flight may be arranged 

 during the summer of 1922. 



Meanwhile the Board are keeping the question under general 

 observation and reports of experiments have been obtained from 

 various sources, including official accounts of a trip made in August 

 over a portion of the waters adjoining the West Coast of 

 France, by a dirigible of the French Air Service, and of observations 

 made by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries from an aeroplane 

 during the East Anglian herring fishing. So far the tests, while 

 demonstrating the feasibility of air observations, cannot be regarded 

 as conclusively showing their practical application for fishery pur- 

 poses, and it is hoped that further light will be thrown on this aspect 

 of the matter by later experiments. 



6. Wireless Communication for Fishing Vessels. 



The development of wireless communication as applied to fishing 

 vessels is being kept under observation. The Board understand from 

 the Postmaster-General that the matter is forming the subject of 

 further experiment and investigation, the results of which will be 

 communicated to the Board. 



7. Intelligence. 



As is well known, the herring fishery is the most important branch 

 of the fishing industry in Scotland, and owing to the highly perishable 

 nature of the herring and the fact that the fishery is prosecuted at 

 remote and widely scattered ports, the dissemination of reliable and 

 prompt intelligence as to its progress is of vital importance to all 

 branches of the industry. 



c 



