Fishery Board for Scotland. 
XXV 
trawlers which landed fish at Aberdeen was 95 — 37 Scottish and 
58 English. Some of these, however, only called occasionally. 
Omitting these, and confining ourselves to trawlers which regularly 
came, the following table shows how their number is increasing : — 
Number of beam-trawlers regularly 
landing fish at Aberdeen. 
Scottish. English. 
1885 ..... 18 29 
1886 13 29 
1887 10 38 
1888 18 32 
1889 20 30 
1890 ..... 29 31 
1891 ..... 36 37 
The reason for the increased employment of English beam- English beam 
trawlers in the waters off the East Coast of Scotland may De {gaWng English 
found in the statistics of the flat fish landed on the East Coast of for Scottish 
England during recent years, which are as follows : — waters 
Year. 
Turbot. 
Soles. 
Prime Fish not 
separately- 
distinguished. 
Totals. 
1887 
1888 
1889 
1890 
1891 
Cwts. 
57,561 
48,760 
44,272 
40,763 
47,594 
£ 
164,772 
149,151 
145,674 
149,849 
175,179 
Cwts. 
67,874 
52,151 
47,747 
46,187 
61,287 
£ 
304,200 
275,770 
286,188 
302,703 
386,718 
Cwts. 
109,424 
105,057 
25,848 
46,137 
43,728 
£ 
350,231 
280.070 
77,582 
116,872 
98,064 
Cwts. 
234,859 
205,968 
117,867 
133,087 
152,609 
£ 
819,203 
704,991 
509,444 
569,424 
659,961 
Thus, on the fishing-grounds off the East Coast of England in 
the course of two years, 1887-89, the soles caught have diminished by 
20,127 cwts., turbot by 13,289 cwts., and other prime fish by 
83,576 cwts., the total decrease in value being £309,759. Hence 
English trawlers are coming north in increased numbers, and 
probably in a few years the statistics of the flat-fish caught in 
Scottish waters will show a great decline. 
3. The Shore Fisheries.— Coincident with these facts we have Decay of shell 
to face the hardly less deplorable fact of a steady and con- {£i^ 8llOTe 
tinuous decline in the value of the -fisheries for shell-fish, namely, 
oysters, mussels, lobsters, crabs, cockles, &c, — which form 
about a twenty- fourth of the gross value of the sea fisheries, 
or, excluding cured fish, about one-eleventh of the whole. 
These fisheries constitute a valuable supplementary industry, 
giving useful employment to the younger members of fishermen's 
families and the old and feeble, when they are laid aside from 
going out to sea. In former Eeports we have shown that 
this process of decay is not peculiar to this country. The 
United States, France, Holland, &c, have all gone through the 
same experience; but by adequate measures for their protection 
