of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



57 



Table IV. — continued. 



Total number of Crans. 



Year. Loch Fyne. Kilbrannan Sound. 



1879 .... ... 33,837 ... ... 36,947 



1880 ... ... 30,193 ... .. 44,788 



1881 ... ... 40,019 ... ... 23,943 



1882 ... ... 84,854 ... ... 53,505 



1883 ... ... 51,494 ... ... 49,089 



1884 ... ... 21,515 ... ... 40,953 



1885 .... ... 26,379 ... ... 44,791 



Average. 



1866-70 33,595 4,038 



1871-75 14,321 10,800 



1876-80 26,469 25,970 



1881-85 44,852 42,456 



Influence oj the Ballantrae Fishing. 



For many years past there has been a great outcry against the Ballan- 

 trae fishing, on the ground that it proves injurious to the Loch Fyne 

 fishery. The idea prevalent among the fishermen is that the capture of 

 so many spawning fish robs the upper waters of their natural supply of 

 young fish, Ballantrae being regarded as the spawning ground of the 

 Loch Fyne herring. The question was reported upon by the Royal 

 Commission on Herring Fisheries in 1879. The Commissioners held 

 that it would be unjust to stop the Ballantrae fishing merely because the 

 fish were spawning, and pointed out that if it were made illegal to 

 catch full herring, there would practically be an end to the herring in- 

 dustry in Scotland. I am not, however, sure that the Ballantrae case is 

 not a special one. On the East Coast the North Sea is a storehouse for 

 herring. Usually when the fish come inshore it is for the purpose of 

 spawning. If they were not caught then there is every probability that 

 they would not be caught at all. In the Clyde estuary it is probable 

 that the supply of herring is to a large extent dependent on the spawning 

 which is carried on at Ballantrae and in the Sound of Kilbrannan. If it 

 should prove to be the case that the herring of this district migrate back- 

 wards and forwards between Ballantrae and Loch Fyne, it is clear, I 

 think, that the stock is liable to be diminished by a continuance of the 

 Ballantrae fishing. Such a restricted migration has certainly not been 

 proved as yet, though the observations brought forward in the present 

 report tend in that direction. There is, however, little doubt that there 

 are other sources from which the Loch Fyne herring fishery is kept up 

 besides those already mentioned. Even granting that the fish which 

 spawn at Ballantrae follow the course which I have indicated, there is 

 one point which still requires elucidation. The fish on leaving Loch 

 Fyne average 1 2 inches in length. Such large herring ought to be easily 

 traced, yet after the month of November we have no account of them. 

 They cannot spawn again at Ballantrae, for the herring there are not 

 nearly so large. There is another factor in the question which requires 

 consideration. It may be that a large number of the herring which 

 spawn at Ballantrae are young fish which were originally hatched there, 

 and which have been matured in Loch Fyne. There is no doubt that there 

 are immense shoals of immature herring in Loch Fyne, particularly in 

 the winter time, and it is equally true that many of the spawning herring 

 at Ballantrae are very small fish, which probably have not spawned 

 before. In this case the Ballantrae fishery would no doubt be injurious 

 to the fishery of the district as a whole. The whole question, however, 

 turns on the extent to which the fishery of the Loch Fyne district is kept 



