34 



Fortieth Annual Report 



Kecognising this fact, the Board in the year 1895 established a 

 system of official telegraphic information between ports at which 

 herring fishing is in progress, and last year the number of telegrams 

 issued was about 3500. 



The telegrams are despatched daily at noon by the Board's 

 Fishery Officers from their own ports to every other port at which 

 herring fishing is then going on, and upon receipt they are exhibited 

 at the fish markets and other public places, where they are available 

 for consultation by all concerned. 



The points on which the telegrams give information are (1) num- 

 ber of arrivals of herring boats, (2) average catch per boat, (3) quality 

 of the fish, (4) range of prices, (5) position of chief fishing grounds, 

 and (6) nature of wind and weather. 



The cost of the service is practically only that of the telegrams 

 sent (which last year amounted to less than £350), but it has been of 

 great and acknowledged value to the industry by assisting in securing 

 the best distribution of the herring fishing fleet, and the stabilisation 

 of prices in a business which, owing to its dependence in large 

 measure upon the system of consignment to Continental and other 

 foreign markets, would otherwise be highly speculative. 



. CHAPTER VII. 



MARINE SUPERINTENDENCE. 

 1. General. 



The protection and regulation of the fisheries in Scottish waters 

 is carried out by the Board's fleet of five fishery cruisers, with the 

 assistance of the Admiralty trawler " Exe," which is chiefly employed 

 in the Moray Firth area for the purpose of dealing with foreign 

 trawlers. 



In England and Wales the duty is performed by the Admiralty, 

 and to a small extent by the local fishery district committees for 

 the enforcement of the regulations made by such committees, but 

 in Scotland it has always been regarded as the proper function of 

 the central fishery authority. In the early years of last century 

 two naval vessels were assigned to act under the instructions of 

 the Board's predecessors, but in 1818 the Department acquired a 

 vessel of their own and shortly thereafter the number of naval 

 vessels was reduced to one. Under the long series of herring 

 fishery Acts various powers were conferred and duties imposed on 

 the Board in regard to marine superintendence, the officers com- 

 manding the vessels employed being appointed " Superintendents 

 of the Fishery," and with the development of other methods of 

 fishing and the extension of national and international regulations 

 affecting fishing vessels, those duties have been greatly extended 

 by more recent statutes, and the fleet of fishery cruisers was gradually 

 increased to its present number. 



