90 



Appendices to Thirty-sixth Annual Report 



APPENDIX N. 

 SALMON FISHERIES. 



MR. CALDERWOOD'S REPORT. 



Fishery Board for Scotland, 

 February 1918. 



I have the honour to submit my annual report with regard to the 

 Salmon Fisheries of Scotland in 1917. 



Last season's catch showed an improvement by 458 tons on the lowest 

 record ever yet reached, being the record for 1916, but last year's 

 record was still 325 tons below the last quinquennial average. 



The position is shown graphically in the following curves, the first 

 four columns being the four quinquennial averages available, and the 

 four succeeding columns, in which the line is dotted, being the annual 

 catch of the four last years. 



In my last report I entered at some length into the general question 

 of the decline of those fisheries; the causes which certainly have to be 

 taken into consideration in any remedial proposals ; and the very un- 

 necessary nature of much that acts against the interests of the fisheries, 

 more especially the injuries done by industrial enterprises of various kinds. 



It does not follow that because certain industries may be of greater 

 national importance the salmon fishery interests must therefore be 

 surrendered. If pollutions, whether industrial or domestic, the undue 

 abstraction of water, and one or two other minor causes could be re- 

 duced, the existing netting, heavy though it may be in places, could 

 very probably be carried on, with a much greater amount of success 

 in the supply of a valuable fish food, and without injury to the stock. 



The manner in which salmon fisheries and polluting industries are 

 represented as essentially opposed one to the other, is, in my opinion, 

 most harmful. Economically, also, I believe the position to be unsound. 

 The more scientifically any manufacturing operation is carried on, the 

 more does waste disappear. Bye-products receive more attention, chemical 

 properties carried off in effluents are abstracted and used, or markets are 

 found or created for such properties. Sheer waste of matter from any 

 manufactory should be properly regarded as money lost. Examples might 

 be found in, say, the production of nitre cake as a waste in the manufacture 

 of explosives, or pot ale in the manufacture of whisky, both formerly 

 regarded as only to be got rid of, but both now completely subject to 

 treatment; both wastes produced in very large quantities, and both 

 extremely harmful to fish life. Further, it seems fair to ask if there is 

 any just reason why our rivers should be the channels into which 

 impurities are poured. No doubt it is easy to get rid of any waste by 

 throwing it into a stream of water flowing to the sea, but if that stream 

 of water supports a stock of fish which are valuable food, and which 

 stock of fish cannot be kept up unless the water of the stream is kept 



