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Part III. — Twenty-third Annual Report 



VIII. — ON THE TAY SPRAT FISHERY, 

 1904-1905. 



By John Fletcher, University College, Dundee. 



The sprat fishing during the past season has been exceptionally poor. 

 Only 1348 crans of sprats, including young herrings, were taken out of 

 the river this season, as against 14,966 crans during the season of 

 1883-1884. 



The 1348 crans consisted of somewhere about 44 million young 

 herrings and sprats, of which some 52 per cent., or 23 million, were 

 young herrings measuring from 4*3 centimetres to 17 '5 centimetres in 

 length, and the other 21 million, or 42 per cent., were sprats measuring 

 from 4 centimetres to 15 centimetres. 



Of the 1348 crans, some 894 crans were sold as fresh fish and sent off 

 to the markets of London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, and other 

 English towns ; and some 454 crans (containing over 7 million young 

 herrings) were sold to local farmers for manure. 



The 894 crans of fresh fish brought to the fishermen a sum of some- 

 where about £220, and the 454 crans of manure brought iu only some 

 £20. 



A certain number of young herrings and sprats were also destroyed 

 while the men were engaged at the sparling fishing further up the river. 



During October, November, and December, 1904, the number of sprat 

 boats engaged at the sparling fishing varied from 5 to 20, and each net 

 brought up along with the sparlings from 1 to 6 buckets of young 

 herrings and sprats per day. During the latter half of January 1905 the 

 number of boats varied from 10 to 26, and these were getting from 3 

 buckets to 1| crans of young herrings and sprats. Very few were 

 caught during the month of February. 



The young of other fishes are also annually destroyed by the sprat and 

 sparling fishermen, but apparently not in any great quantities. The 

 useful forms include the young of the whiting, cod, plaice, dab, flounder, 

 and sparling, while among the inedible kinds were young and adult 

 agoni, cotti, liparis, lumpsuckers, sand-eels, sticklebacks, &c. 



The Broughty-Ferry winter herring fishermen and the sprat fishermen 

 strictly observed the line of division suggested at the Local Enquiry of 

 January 1904, viz. : — a line drawn between Broughty-Ferry and Tayport, 

 the sprat fishers being restricted to the part of the river above that line, 

 and the Broughty-Ferry men never going beyond it. 



During the course of this season's investigations 46 samples of mixed 

 sprats, young herring, and other fish were bought and examined. The 

 46 samples consisted of : — 



