THIRTY-NINTH ANNUAL REPORT. 



TO THE EIGHT HONOURABLE 

 ROBERT MUNRO, K.C., MR, 



His Majesty's Secretary for Scotland. 



Fishery Board for Scotland, 

 Edinburgh, April 1921. 



Sir,- 



In terms of the Act 45 and 46 Yict., c. 78, we, the 

 Fishery Board for Scotland, have the honour to present our 

 Thirty-ninth Annual Report, being for the year 1920 : — 



CHAPTER I. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The account which we have to submit in this and the succeeding 

 chapters of the progress of the Scottish fisheries during 1920 is not 

 so satisfactory as we could have wished. The industry is at present 

 passing through a period of great depression, and the conditions 

 prevailing after two years of peace form a somewhat melancholy 

 contrast to the rosy prospects which were confidently predicted for 

 it at the conclusion of hostilities in November 1918. Hopes then 

 ran high that the armistice would be the precursor of an era of 

 unprecedented prosperity, and while they were doubtless to some 

 extent inspired by the reaction from the anxiety which had hung 

 over the industry for so long, they were nevertheless not without 

 a reasonable foundation. During the long' drawn-out struggle the 

 value of our fisheries, alike as a nursery for seamen and as a source m 

 of food supply, had been brought home to the nation as never before, 

 while there was every reason to believe that the virtual close time 

 brought about by the war would have resulted in the replenishment 

 of the fishing grounds, and it was but natural that those connected 

 with the industry should see in this a good augury for the future. 

 Circumstances have, however, conspired to frustrate the realisation of 

 these hopes. 



The causes underlying the present depression are well defined. 

 In the case of the herring fishing industry, they are to be found in 



