Report on Salmon Fisheries. 



ix 



It will be observed from the above statement that the rental for 

 1894 is lower than that for the previous year. 



The Aberdeen Harbour Commissioners have kindly furnished a ^ r c ^l t at 

 statement of the number and weight of fish caught at their salmon salmon Fish* 

 fishings since 1872. This return shows that the falling-off in these j£^^fj n 8 

 fisheries last year was specially due to the very small number of Harbour Com- 

 salmon which were caught. Grilse were more numerous than in misskmers. 

 1893, although considerably below the average of recent years. 

 Sea trout, however, were very numerous, the take of these fish 

 in 1894 only having been exceeded in three out of the twenty- 

 three years for which statistics are available. The report for 1892 

 (pp. vii. and xi.) contains some interesting observations by Mr Eoss, 

 the Harbour Treasurer, on the yield of these fisheries since the 

 formation of the Dee Salmon Fishing Improvement Association. . 



Salmon disease appears on the whole to have been less prevalent ^jgj disease 

 during 1894 than in the previous year. From the Forth it is m 

 reported that 248 fish were taken out of the river in the winter of 

 1893-4, as against about 800 in 1892-3, and 1600 in 1891-2; 

 from the Tay that the usual number of fish were affected ; from 

 the South Esk that 70 fish were taken from the river in January, 

 February, and November ; from the Dee in Aberdeenshire that 

 they numbered 329, and that they were mostly spent males ; from 

 the Don that the disease was practically non-existent ; from the 

 Ythan that 153 fish succumbed, of which 119 were males and 34 

 females ; from the Ugie that there were 74 ; and from the Deveron 

 that the fish which died numbered only 348, as against 1640 in the 

 previous year. In the Spey the number of fish affected appears to 

 have been the lowest on record. The disease showed itself to a 

 slight extent in the Conon, Helmsdale, Girvan, and Nith ; also, 

 although it is not stated to what extent, in the Nairn and Cree. 

 In the Annan the total number taken out of the river appears to 

 have been only 67, of which 18 were males and 49 females, whereas 

 669 were reported in the previous year. 



By the direction of the Board, Mr Archer visited the district of J^® ct jgg s 4 

 the Eiver Cree regarding the petition from the District Board of urmg 

 that river, praying for an alteration of the annual close time. He 

 held inquiries in the Tay and Forth districts on the question of hang 

 and drift-net fishing in the estuaries of these rivers ; he attended a 

 conference of the Annan and Nith District Boards and the Liddle and 

 Esk Fishery Association, held at Dumfries, for the discussion of pro- 

 posals for the removal of the existing anomalies of the law in the 

 Sol way Firth ; and he was also present at a meeting of the Deveron 

 District Board, when the question of the cruive dyke on that river 

 formed the subject of discussion. He further accompanied Mr 

 Stafford Howard, H.M. Commissioner of Woods, on an inspection 

 of the salmon fisheries on the East Coast, and subsequently com- 

 pleted the inspection of these fishings as far as Cape Wrath in 

 Sutherlandshire. In his Eeport to the Board, which is given on 

 page 5 of the Appendices to this Eeport, he describes this inspection, 

 and indicates by means of red lines on a map of Scotland, appended 

 to this Eeport, the approximate number of fixed nets on every ten 

 miles of coast. The map further shows the limits of the salmon 

 fishery districts, and of the estuary lines as defined by the bye-laws 



