60 



Appendices to Fourth Annual Report 



Loss of the Upper Loch Fyne Fishery. 

 How far the loss of the Upper Loch Fyne fishery is attributable to the 

 agency of man I cannot say, but it seems probable that at present there 

 are several agencies at work, the removal of which would give the fish a 

 better chance of returning to their old haunts. The chief of these are — 



1. Great increase in the number of boats, and the introduction of a 



more profitable mode of fishing. 



2. Daylight fishing. 



3. Early fishing, before the fish have had time to settle down. 



The first, of course, comes with the development of the fishery, and is 

 unavoidable. , If, however, our chief aim is to induce the herring to remain 

 and spawn in Upper Loch Fyne, there is no doubt that trawling should 

 be stopped in those waters simply because it is a more deadly method of 

 fishing, and if practised in the daylight could not fail to ultimately drive 

 any shoal of herring from such narrow waters. Nevertheless, I question 

 whether the end justifies the means. Since the Upper Loch Fyne fishery 

 ceased, that in the Sound of Kilbrannan has more than made up for the loss, 

 and it is not to be expected that the fishing can be in both places at once. 



Fishery Police and Statistics. 



Perhaps I may be permitted here to call attention to one or two matters 

 in connection with the Fishery Police and the collection of statistics by 

 the Board officers, which appear to me to require readjustment. 



In the first place, H.M.'s cutter ' Daisy ' is entirely unfit for the duties 

 she has to perform. No sailing vessel can be competent to superintend 

 the herring fishery from Inveraray to Campbeltown. It very often happens 

 that although there is urgent need of the services of the ' Daisy' for police 

 or other duties, she is at the time becalmed, and thus her services are 

 unavailable. It is very desirable that the ' Daisy ' should be replaced at 

 once by a small steam vessel, which could easily command the whole 

 Clyde estuary. It would be a great boon to the fishing industry if a 

 vessel of this class were kept continually between Ballantrae and Inveraray. 

 At one place or another between these two points herring are being caught 

 all the year round. The vessel should follow the fishing from place to 

 place, and in this way much valuable information might be collected 

 which could not be obtained in any other manner. In connection with this 

 subject it seems a pity that one of the Board's officers should not have 

 charge of the whole district so far as the herring industry is concerned. 

 I am convinced that if any reliable information is to be obtained, this can be 

 better accomplished by one officer who has instructions to follow the fish 

 from place to place than by several officers each stationed at one centre. 



During a great part of the Loch Fyne fishing there is not a single 

 Fishing officer in the district. As soon as the great East Coast herring 

 fishery commences, all the Board's officers are required to superintend that 

 work, and the collection of statistics in Loch Fyne has to be left to corres- 

 pondents. The collection of statistics of herrings sold fresh is admittedly 

 more difficult than in the case of those which are cured, and this fact 

 makes it all the more necessary that one officer should be left in charge of 

 the Loch Fyne fishing. T may also call attention to the fact that the 

 Loch Fyne herring are accounted for in the Board's statistics as being 

 cured, whereas nearly all of them are sent to the market fresh. A num- 

 ber of swift steamers are employed for the purpose, and the fish are taken 

 on board from the skiffs as soon as they have been caught. The same 

 remark is equally applicable to the herring caught in the Girvan, Camp- 

 beltown, and Rothesay districts. Indeed the greater part of the herring 



