of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



xxix 



contributed its quota. Net fishing, on the other hand, received a 

 rather serious set-back during the year. The quantities taken by the 

 three methods of fishing in 1911 and 1910 are shown in the following 

 table : — 



Year. Trawl. Line. Net. 



1911 ... 1,938,274 cwts. 694,017 cwts. 61,105 cwts. 



1910 ... 1,898,014 „ 603,196 „ 108,903 „ 



The falling off in net-caught fish was due to the failure of the cod- 

 net fishing in the Moray Firth, but it is to be hoped that the decline 

 will prove to be only a temporary one. The increase in the catch by 

 lines is, it will be observed, a substantial one, and must serve to allay 

 the fears of those who take a pessimistic view of the future of this 

 branch of the industry. 



For the decline in value trawled fish was mainly responsible, while 

 the increase in quantity was in a very large measure due to the 

 increased success which attended haddock fishing. 



Haddocks. 



The total quantity of haddocks landed amounted to 1,013,693 

 cwts., valued at £513,697, as compared with 922,639 cwts. and 

 £528,660 in 1910. Both trawlers and liners — in the ratio of 5:4 — 

 shared in the increase, although proportionally the improvement was 

 all in favour of line fishing, the percentages of increase in the line and 

 trawl landings being respectively 32 and 6. The trawl catch 

 amounted to 846,385 cwts., as compared with 795,644 cwts. in 1910, 

 and the increase was largely due to the success of the fleet fishing 

 from Granton, these vessels having secured over 33,000 cwts., or 20 

 per cent., more than in 1910. The Granton vessels, it may be 

 remarked, had a most successful year, the aggregate trawl landings 

 being the heaviest in the history of the port. The remainder of the 

 increase is attributable to Aberdeen, with an advance upon last year's 

 figures of 20,000 cwts., or 3 per cent. The haddocks landed at 

 Granton were, as a rule, of a good marketable size, in contrast to the 

 experience of the preceding year, but at Aberdeen the contrary was 

 the case, small haddocks constituting no less than 44 per cent, of the 

 catch at that port. A large proportion of these immature fish is 

 unsaleable as food, and is disposed of to the manure factories at 

 nominal rates ; and the wholesale destruction which this implies 

 cannot but be regarded with misgiving. 



Practically the whole of the increase in the line catch occurred on 

 the East Coast, where during the year under review operations were 

 very successful ; nor was the improvement confined to any particular 

 district, being general along the entire seaboard. Some of the small 

 boats engaged in this fishing in the Moray Firth make quite remark- 

 able earnings, one crew of three men having realised £286 during the 

 last four months of the year. On the West Coast, on the contrary, 

 haddocks were scarcer than in 1910, the catch having fallen from 

 20,221 cwts. to 17,737 cwts. The total landings by line amounted 

 to 167,308 cwts., as compared with 126,995 cwts. in 1910, of which 

 the East Coast contributed 73 per cent., or 10 per cent, more than in 

 the preceding year. 



