of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



45 



solvent, is beginning to replace the older method of expressing the 

 oil mechanically, and is said to give a much higher yield. 



The Coal Strike and the Fishing Industry. 



The fishing industry, in common with most other industries, was 

 immediately affected by the coal strike which occurred in trie latter 

 part of the year, and as the strike was general throughout the country, 

 steps had at once to be taken to regulate supplies on a national basis. 

 In allotting supplies the first consideration was naturally given to 

 essential industries, in which fishing as a food-producing industry 

 was included. The regulation of supplies was carried out by a Com- 

 mittee in London appointed by the Coal Mines Department, and 

 supplies for the fishing fleet were arranged for by a Sub-Committee 

 of that Committee, on which the Board, as the custodian of Scottish 

 fishery interests, was represented. Fortunately in so far as Scotland 

 was concerned, only the trawling and line-fishing ports were affected, 

 the herring fishing season having terminated, and the situation was 

 therefore less difficult than it otherwise would have been. 



The first step taken by the Board was to obtain and transmit to 

 the Sub-Committee full information as to the coal requirements of 

 the fishing fleets at the various ports and of the stocks available. After 

 reviewing the position the Sub- Committee decided that the available 

 stocks permitted the supply to fishing vessels of 50 per cent, of their 

 normal requirements, and steps were taken to ration supplies on this 

 basis. This was effected through the medium of local committees 

 which were set up at the fishing ports, and on which the Board were 

 represented by their fishery officers, whose intimate knowledge of 

 local conditions was of great service. 



Daily returns of the quantities put on board the fishing vessels 

 and of the stocks remaining on hand were transmitted by the fishery 

 officers to the Board's representative (Commander Fisher) in London, 

 and with this information before them the Shipping Sub-Committee 

 were enabled to keep the whole position constantly under review, 

 with the result that the arrangements worked without a hitch. 

 Supplies of coal were forwarded to the various ports as and when 

 required, and fishing operations proceeded without interruption on 

 the modified scale rendered necessary by the 50 per cent reduction. 



Prevention of Damage by Trawlers to Submarine Cables. 



In pursuance of the arrangements made in 1913 for the preven- 

 tion of damage by trawlers to submarine cables, the inspection of 

 trawl gear at the principal trawling ports, Aberdeen, Granton and 

 Dundee, was duly carried out by the Board's officers. The officers 

 were given every facility in their rounds of inspection, and in every 

 case the defects discovered, which were relatively few in number 

 and were usually of a trivial nature, were remedied before the vessels 

 left for sea. 



The following statement shows the number of inspections of the 

 trawl gear of Scottish and English trawlers during 1920. No gear on 

 foreign trawlers was inspected during the year. 



