14. Fisheries.

During the last quarter of a century the fishing industry has made great strides, the value of fish landed in Scotland having more than doubled in that period. Nowhere has the impetus been more felt than in Aberdeenshire, which now contributes as much as one-third of the whole product of Scotch fisheries. Since 1886 the weight of fish caught round the Scottish coast has increased from five million hundredweights to over nine millions, while the money value has risen in even a greater proportion from £1,403,391, to £3,149,127. To these totals Aberdeen alone has contributed over a hundred thousand tons of white fish (excluding herrings), valued at over a million pounds sterling. Peterhead and Fraserburgh are also contributors especially as regards herrings, the former landing 739,878 hundredweights and Fraserburgh very nearly a similar quantity. These three ports amongst them account for one half of all the fish landed at Scottish ports. When we consider the number of persons collaterally employed in handling this enormous quantity of merchandise, the coopers, cleaners, packers, basket makers, boat-builders, makers of nets, clerks and so on, apart altogether from the army of fishermen employed in catching the fish, we see how far-reaching thisindustry is, not merely in increasing the food-supply of the country but in providing profitable employment for the population. At Aberdeen, it is estimated, 13,512 persons are so employed and at the other two ports combined, almost a similar number.

There are two great branches of the fishing industry—herrings and white fish. The herrings are caught for the most part, though not exclusively, in the summer, July being the great month. They are captured with nets mostly by steam-drifters as they are called, but also to some extent by the ordinary sailing boats of a smaller size than the drifters. Fraserburgh and Peterhead land in each case double the weight of herrings that come to Aberdeen. In recent years a beginning has been made in May and June with gratifying success, but July and August give the maximum returns. Later on in the year, when the shoals have moved along the coast southwards, the herring fleets follow them thither, to North Shields and Hartlepool, to Yarmouth and Lowestoft; and bands of curers, coopers and workers migrate in hundreds from one port to another, employing themselves in curing the fish. The bulk of the herrings are cured by salting, and are then exported to Germany and Russia, where they are much in demand.

Even more important is the white fishing. Aberdeen is here pre-eminent, being perhaps the most important fishing centre in the world. The total catch for Scotland in 1909 was short of three million hundredweights, of which Aberdeen with its large fleet of trawlers and steam-liners accounted for 67 per cent. The mostimportant of the so-called round fish is the haddock, of which over a million hundredweights are landed in Scotland, Aberdeen contributing the lion’s share, three-fourths of the whole. Next to the haddock comes the cod, of which nearly three hundred and forty thousand hundredweights were handled in the Aberdeen fish market. The next fish is ling, and then come whitings, saithe, torsk, conger-eels. The flat-fish are also important, plaice, witches, megrims, halibut, lemon soles and turbot. This last is the scarcest and most highly prized of all flat fish, and commands a price next to that given for salmon. Ling and halibut are still mostly caught by hook and line; the turbot and the lemon sole on the other hand are distinctively the product of the trawl net and were little known until trawling was begun.

A certain small percentage of this great weight of fish is consumed locally, but the great bulk of it is packed in ice and dispatched by swift passenger trains to the southern markets. The Aberdeen fish market, extending for half a mile along the west and north sides of the Albert Basin (originally the bed of the Dee) is the property of the Town Corporation and is capable of dealing with large catches. As much as 760 tons of fish have been exposed on its concrete floor in a single day. In the early morning the place is one of the sights of the city, with the larger fish laid out in symmetrical rows on the pavement, and the smaller fish—haddocks, whiting and soles—in boxes arranged for the auction sale at 8 a.m.

The majority of the fishing craft are still sailing vessels, but steam-drifters and motor-boats and steam-trawlers

Fish Market, Aberdeen

are gradually driving the ordinary sail-boats from the trade, just as the trawl net is superseding the old-fashioned mode of fishing with set lines. Still about 86 per cent. of the number of boats employed is made up of sailing vessels, but the tonnage is relatively small. The quantity of fish caught by hook and line is only one-tenth of the whole.

Fishwives, The Green, Aberdeen

North Harbour, Peterhead

Herring boats at Fraserburgh

The amount of capital invested in boats and fishing gear for all Scotland is estimated by the Fishery Board at over £5,000,000. Of this total, Aberdeenshire claims very nearly two millions. It is now the case that the value of fish discharged at the fish market of Aberdeen is as great as the yearly value of the agricultural land of the whole county—truly a marvellous revolution.

Fishing Fleet going out, Aberdeen

The herring fishery was prosecuted off the Scottish coast by the Dutch, long before the Scotch could be induced to take part in it. Many futile attempts were made to exploit the industry but little came of them till the nineteenth century. A beginning was made at Peterhead in 1820 and at Fraserburgh a little earlier.Aberdeen followed in 1836 but no great development took place till 1870. The first trawler came on the scene in 1882; to-day there are over 200 local vessels of this type besides many from other ports.

The salmon fishery has long been famous and at one time was relatively a source of much greater revenue than at present. It still yields a considerable annual surplus to the Corporation funds, but has been eclipsed by the growth of other fisheries. The rateable value of the salmon fishings on the Dee is nearly £19,000; those of the other salmon rivers—the Don, Ythan and Ugie—being much less. The fish are caught by fixed engines in the sea—stake-nets and bag-nets—set within a statutory radius of the river mouth, and by sweep- or drag-nets in the tidal reaches of the rivers. A good many fish are caught by rod and line throughout the whole course of the rivers but angling is not the commercial side of salmon-fishing.

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