Fishery Board for Scotland. 



Ixxxiii 



ECONOMIC CHANGES IN THE FISHERY INDUSTRY. 

 The Board cannot conclude this Report without referring to the increased 

 increased attention which is being paid by the trade and the public to\Te Fhiun^^ 

 to sundry questions affecting the prosperity of the fishing industry, industry, 

 the discussion of which cannot fail to be ultimately beneficial to 

 this important interest. One of these is the possibility of increas- 

 ing the facilities for forwarding the fi^h to the consumer, and 

 improving the existing arrangements for their distribution over the 

 country. It is of vital importance to a fisherman to get his fish importance of 

 ashore fresh, and sent on to market with as little delay and qifcidy amf 

 at as small an expense as possible. One great advantage which cheaply to 

 the steam trawler has over the line fisherman is the facility with ^^^k®*- 

 which he can steam to harbour with his cargo of fish ; and re- 

 cently steam trawlers have been taking out licences for towing 

 purposes so that they can tow fishing boats. There is here room 

 for an obvious improvement on the present system, for where 

 there is any considerable fleet of boats, they might amongst 

 them furnish sufficient employment for a small steam tender of 

 their own, which, acting as a carrier, would enable them to devote 

 to fishing the time now spent in running to and from the fishing 

 grounds. As regards the mode of distribution, the practice of Mode of 

 selling by a salesman from the boats as they arrive is, in the distribution, 

 larger towns, such as Aberdeen, growing in favour. The fish so 

 sold are principally bought up by middlemen in correspondence 

 with the different markets, and who forward them by express 

 trains all over the country. The competition is too keen to admit 

 of the middleman taking too much profit, and practically he is no 

 great burden on the consumer. The heaviest charge which the 

 consumer has to pay is to the railways, the cost of the carriage of 

 the less valuable fish being about one-third of their value. By 

 many persons this system of selling herring by auction at the pier- 

 head is strongly recommended in place of the ' bounty ' system, 

 adverted to in the beginning of this Report, and to which the 

 heavy losses sustained by the curers are generally attributed. The Bounty 

 bounty system has certainly been injurious in many ways. It has ^y^^®"'- 

 tempted the fishermen to begin fishing too early in the season, and 

 to use nets with too small a mesh, and with the result that the 

 fish caught are inferior in size and quality. The Board have been 

 urged to interfere by prohibiting undersized nets; but as any rules 

 which they -might issue are only operative within the three mile 

 limit, the matter ought soon to cure itself if the trade would 

 adopt the practice of buying from day to day, at the prices of the 

 day, and according to the quality of the fish. The Board have 

 thought it best to come to no decision on the matter, till at least 

 the result of the fishing of 1886 is seen. There is a very general 

 desire not to purchase herrings for curing upon the East Coast and 

 in Orkney before the 20th July, nor in Shetland before the 25th 

 June, and at all the principal stations to buy only daily at the 

 current prices of the day, as these may be regulated by the quality 

 of the fish ; but how far this new system will become general, and 



how long it will continue, remains to be seen. 



