Ivi 



Fourth Annual Report of the 



Yearly totals cod, ling, and hake cured, punched, or branded and exported, year 



aud Hake"°' 7^^^'' '^^^ ^'^^ fi^^^ hrouglit binder the cognizance of the fishery 



Cured aud officers, from 10th October 1820, when the system for the encourage- 



?c\Wc'^' meut and improvement of the cod and ling fishery commenced, to 



iSLO-isso. 3^g^ December 1885. 



OYSTER, CEAB, LOBSTER, and MUSSEL FISHERIES. 



These Fisheries The oyster, crab, lobster, and mussel fisheries, since the passing oi 

 1868 t^d^r^ Fisheries Act of 1868 (subsequently amended by the Act 



Boardof Trade, ^f 1877, 40 and 41 Vict. cap. 42) were, until 1885, under the 

 charge of the Board of Trade. One of the purposes of the Act was 

 That Act to encourage the cultivation and increase the supply of oysters 

 intended to musscls, bv authorisinsj the Board of Trade to issue an order 



encoura'^e cui- ' j o 



tivation°of Conferring a right of ' several oyster and mussel fishery,' on such 

 Mussels persons as might choose to apply for it, within a certain specified 

 area of the shore and bed of the sea, or of an estuary or tidal river. 

 Within these limits the Act declared that the order should operate 

 as a grant of the exclusive right of depositing, propagating, dredg- 

 foUed to^do s fishing for and taking oysters and mussels ; but prac- 



ai ec to c 0 so, j-^^^g^^y proved a dead letter in Scotland. The whole expenses 

 connected with the obtaining of the Order, including the cost of 

 preliminary survey of the portion of the coast to be appropriated, 

 had to be borue by the promoters, who, naturally enough, were 

 unwilling to incur so serious an outlay for the purpose of obtain- 

 ing permission to engage in an experiment, the success of which 

 Powers in was both uncertain and precarious. By the 11th section of the Sea 

 transferred to ^^ishcries (Scotland) Amendment Act, 1885, which has now come 

 Fishery Board, into Operation, all the powers and duties of the Board of Trade, 

 under the Sea Fisheries Acts and the Acts of 1877 and 1881, 

 so far as they can be exercised in Scotland, in respect to the 

 oyster and mussel fisheries, the crab and lobster fisheries, and the 

 clam and bait beds, have been transferred to this Board, who are 

 now therefore in a position to receive and consider any applica- 

 tions that may be made to them by persons desirous of cul- 

 tivating the oyster and mussel fisheries, and to afford every facility 

 for their doing so. 



Great falling The present state of the oyster fishery of Scotland presents a very 

 Oysters^^^^^ Striking contrast to the continued prosperity and development of her 

 other fisheries. In former times many parts of the coasts yielded 

 large supplies of excellent oysters, but year after year the falling off 

 in this fishery has been very great, and now the produce is so 

 small that, at least in a commercial point of view, it is of 

 Particulars little importance. Last year this decrease still continued. The 

 thereof. Firth of Forth, whose waters used to be so famous for the 

 abundant supply of fine oysters which they produced, only yielded 

 ' in 1884 oysters of the small value of about £500, but last year 



the whole fishing was worth the mucli smaller sum of £273. 

 Again, the oysters taken on all the coasts of Scotland in 1885 

 only numbered 2202 hundreds, valued at £809, as against 5176 

 Ho])edthat hundreds in 1884, valued at £2174. It is, therefore, to be hoped 

 SFhPhJ^^ that the passing of the Act in question will have the effect, of 



creased. ^ ^ x zii^U^qqi. . ; M.A 



