12 



Appendices to Thirty-seventh Annual Report 



consuming centres,, and among a people who have for generations 

 divided their attentions between fishing and agriculture — but briefly 

 they should be : — 



(1) to select from the crofts the younger, more active and 



intelligent men and to provide them with motor fishing 

 vessels capable of prosecuting net and line fishing at all 

 seasons of the year, either on the prolific grounds off the 

 West Coast, particularly those for white fish lying to tho 

 West of the Outer Hebrides, or on the East Coast of 

 Scotland ; 



(2) to establish fishing centres for them on the model of the 



fishing villages on the south shore of the Moray Firth ; 



(3) to train them to navigate their vessels and drive and repair 



their motor engines ; 



(4) to provide them with suitable landing and transport facilities — 



piers, and fish carriers from outlying villages ; 



(5) to institute experiments in the hatching of lobsters, and to 



provide lobster ponds at convenient centres ; 



(6) to develop the oyster, mussel, and cockle fisheries on the 



farming system adopted in France ; 



(7) to erect small smoking houses for emergencies at remote 



stations, and fish canneries, cold stores, and fish oil, cake, 

 and manure factories at the larger centres ; and 



(8) to encourage the regular prosecution of the white fishing on 



the West coasts of Ross and Sutherland and of the Outer 

 Isles, and in the Clyde estuary, where the prospects are 

 most promising. 



A great deal of valuable information as to the pre-war position 

 of the industry on the West Coast was collected by a committee of 

 the Board in 1914, and this is available in the event of its being decided 

 to adopt definite action. 



In pre-war times the important herring fishery prosecuted off the 

 West Coast, except in the Clyde estuary, was carried on by vessels 

 and men belonging to the East Coast, and the great bulk of the fish 

 was pickled for export. Even during the existing food stringency 

 only comparatively small quantities of fish so preserved are used in 

 this country. Consequently, with the return of peace and the dis- 

 location of the usual foreign trade in herrings, there will be difficulty 

 in finding an outlet for the catch unless steps are taken either to 

 adopt some other means of preservation more likely to appeal to the 

 British palate or to expand the market for fresh fish by providing 

 improved means of transport. 



Kippering has been developed to a fair extent, but it by no means 

 meets the situation because (1) the rich West Coast herring taken 

 in the summer does not keep for more than seven or eight days even 

 when smoked, and (2) delays in transport are almost as fatal to 

 them as to fresh herring. 



Canning is therefore the only alternative to pickling as a com- 

 paratively permanent method of preserving herrings, and every 

 encouragement should be given to any effort in that direction for 

 the following (among other) reasons, viz. : — 



(1) The social and economic conditions obtaining in the West 



