xxxviii 
Ninth Annual Report of the 
Additional 
duties imposed; 
hut no addition 
made to staff 
of cruisers. 
Penalty for 
trawling in 
closed waters 
increased. 
Prosecutions 
instituted 
and offenders 
punished, but 
with little 
effect. 
Proposal made 
by Board in 
regard thereto. 
Secretary for 
Scotland in 
communication 
with the 
Admiralty. 
however, thsir duties have become much more numerous and 
important. It is to tliese cruisers that the Board have now to look 
for the protection of the rights of line and net fishermen again 
the operations of trawlers, and the due enforcement of the statutes 
which have been passed, in the general interests of the fisheries, 
against trawling in certain areas. The areas, originally closed by 
the Board for the purpose of investigating the eSect of trawling, 
were gradually extended, as the evidence accumulated that it was 
injurious to the fisheries to use a beam trawl in the inshore waters. 
At length the Herring Fishery (Scotland) Act, 1889, was passed, 
closing all the territorial waters round the coasts of Scotland, with 
the exception of the Solway and Pentland Firths, against trawling, 
sj that now, although the important duty of protecting the interests 
of line and net fishermen in the closed water? against trawling has 
been entrusted to the Board, in addition to the duties formerly 
devolving upon them, the staff of cruisers placed at their 
service has not been added to. 
An Act was passed last year amending the Herring Fishery 
(Scotland) Act of 1889, to the effect that any person trawling in 
the closed waters shall be liable to a line not exceeding £100, 
(instead of the smaller fines then in force), or imprisonment for a 
period not exceeding sixty days, but, notwithstanding this, com- 
plaints are constantly being received from different parts of the 
coast of the infringement of the law. A large number of prosecutions 
have been instituted against trawlers, many of whom have been 
convicted and fined ; but this seems to have had little or no effect 
in preventing the law being contravened. In these circumstances 
the Board were under the necessity of again urging upon your 
Lordship that this matter should be efficiently dealt with, and they 
submitted for your consideration the following proposal, namely: 
— That in addition to the 'Jackal,' an etEcient gun-boat should 
be placed at their disposal all the year round ; that the Board's 
cruiser ' Vigilant ' should be replaced by a suitable steam vessel ; 
and that each of these vessels should be furnished with a steam 
launch for special service. 
The Board were much gratified to learn in reply, that your 
Lordship was in cammunication with the Lords of tlie Admiralty 
regarding the matter, with the view of submitting a scheme to the 
Lords of the Treasury for dealing with it; and they hope that 
the issue will be such as will enable them satisfactorily to carry 
out their important duties in the administration of the fishery laws. 
Injuries done by Trawlers or other Fishing Boats to the 
Boats or Gear of Fishermen. 
Return of In Appendix E, No. I., will be found a return, by districts, for 
in^£ated ^^^^ Y^^^, of complaiuts made to officers of the Board, and investi- 
and reported gated and reported on by them, of injuries done by trawlers or 
other fishing boats to the boats, nets, lines, or gear of fishermen 
and showing the results in each case. 
From this return it will be seen that the complaints investigated 
and reported on by the Board's fishery officers and commanders of 
fishery cruisers continue to decrease in number, there being only 
