Abstract
THE Report for 1886 contains so much of general interest that it deserves the attention of many who look upon a Blue-book as the driest of reading, only attractive to those whom it may immediately concern. It is desirable that the scope and practical aims of the Board should be more generally known, and the public should appreciate the excellent work done by it, instead of regarding this as the mere outcome of scientific leanings to certain lines of investigation. The fisheries of Scotland continue to be very productive, and nothing is more striking about them than the great and increasing yield of the herring fishery. Though this increase and the low price at which the herrings have been sold have proved a great boon to the community, especially to the poorer classes, it is deeply to be regretted that the crews sustained very heavy losses from the glutting of the market consequent on the large takes and low prices. A striking feature of the summer herring fishery of 1885 was that many in-shore grounds where herrings had been found in great abundance in previous years but which had been recently all but deserted were restored to their former fertility. This was even more marked in the season of 1886, as all along the east coast from Montrose to the Pentland Firth there seemed to be one immense unbroken shoal of herrings, lying from one to ten miles off land. At no former period in the history of this fishery were the catches so heavy. The winter herring fishery on the east coast was the most productive ever known, yielding a total catch of 128,441 crans. The gross total value of the sea and salmon fisheries of Scotland for 1886 was,£2,550,778 8s. 3d.
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Fifth Annual Report of the Fishery Board for Scotland . Nature 37, 132–134 (1887). https://doi.org/10.1038/037132a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/037132a0