The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-08-02 00:00:00

The HERRING FISHERY in SCOTLAND.

The herring fishery on the East Coast of Scotland
has this year been unusually productive, says the
Times. In some parts the take has been unprece-
dently large at so early a period of the season, and
although the 20th July has hitherto been the time
when the regular fishery has begun, this year nearly
half an average fishing has already been secured. At
Fraserburgh in the second week of this month there
was such a take day after day that the curers, though
at work all night, were quite unable to cure the fish
caught, and, besides sending many tons of herrings to
dung the land, one boat-loadful after another had to
be thrown into the sea for want of sufficient strength
to receive and salt the fish on the land. But the
weather having became wintry, time was afforded to
the curers to work off the surplus takes,
and the ordinary fishing is now in progress. The
development of this branch of industry in the north
of Scotland has been something wonderful. At one
Lime, and that too when the fishery was aided by
bounties from the National Treasury and the salt
for curing was duty free, only about 300 boats, poorly
equipped, were employed on the East Coast, but now
nearly 2,000 are engaged in the herring fishing, and
last year reaped such a harvest from the deep as to
bring at three ports—viz., Fraserburgh, Peterhead,
and Aberdeen—a larger return than the whole
rental of that county, while with the other ports the
returns in money vaitie amounted to £1,000,000. On
the other side of the Murray Firth, the fishery, after
years of comparative failure, has again become
prosperous, and Wick, the great emporium of the
trade there, is resuming its former dimensions as the
first fishing port in Caithness._ _
_ _

The erratic character of the herring, as well as its
marvellous prolificness, are again asserting themselves,
for at stations long deserted, especially in Orkney and
Shetland, immense shoils have recently been met
with, and heavy fishings have been landed. From
statistics collected by the Fishery Board it appears
that whereas the returns in 1873 for Shetland were given
as 1100 barrels of 700 herrings in each, and valued at
.€1650, the fishing for 1883 filled 256,487 barrels,
valued at £384,730. Including the value of other
fish caught and for the most part forwarded to the
English market packed in ice, or otherwise preserved
in a fresh state, the Board values the fisheries at
.E 3,286,000. It would be a mistake, however, to infer from
all this that the herrings have become so plentiful and
have intruded themselves on the fishermen at all these
ports as they never did before, the main reason of the
general increase being new discoveries of fishing
ground, larger and better equipped boats, and great
distances sailed to reach the Dogger Bank, where the
Dutch many years ago found a mine of wealth in the
fisheries, although of late years few of their loggers
have been seen in the North Sea, the French having
to a large extent taken their place. But while the
fishery has become thus productive, complaints are
now heard among the curers regarding the immense
quantity of immature fish that are caught. Formerly
the meshes of the fishing nets measured an inch
square, and the Fishery Board were most parti-
cular in • seeing that this size was maintained,
but a few years ago the fishermen got permis-
sion Co reduce the size of the mesh, and since
then small fish, called rnatties, have formed a large
proportion of the takes, although they only bring
half the price which the full-sized herrings command
in the foreign markets, and even less in the markets
at home. The only cause of regret now in connection
with these great and growing fisheries is the limited
and dangerous character of many of the harbours on
the coast. For two years a Parliamentary Committee
lixts been sitting on this subject, and there is reason to
hope that something effectual will be done, for
although the erection of harbours of refuge, chiefly
by convict labour, is to be proceeded with at Peter-
head and some other ports, no real benefit will accrue
from them to the fishermen on the East Coast, im-
proved harbour accommodation being more urgently
required.