Extract from the 'Annual report of the Fishery Board for Scotland', 1867.
The Fishery Board for Scotland was founded in 1909 to develop the herring fishing industry. It was responsible for regulating the boats, nets and processing of the catch. A network of inspectors ensured that the standards were met. It also provided funding for building harbours and boats to encourage fishing activity. It gradually came to oversee all types of fishing and published an annual report of its activities. These reports are a hugely valuable resource for historians.
Introduction, p. 5. Transcript below:
'By this enactment the Seine or Trawl Net, which had been prohibited for the capture of Herrings since the year 1851, was again made free to Fishermen. It was at once taken into use in Lochfyne and adjacent waters, and in Lochfyne its restoration was received with satisfaction as well by the Fishermen of the Upper Loch as of the Lower.
In so far as can be judged by the test of one season, the use of the Seine can be carried along with that of the ordinary Drift Net, care being taken to exercise a close superintendence over the two sets of Fishermen; indeed many of the Fishermen were found using alternatively one or other kind on Net to their great advantage, according as the state of the Fishing rendered the one Net or the other the most successful and profitable to employ; for at times the Drift Net would catch Fish when the Seine would catch none and vice versa; while, instead of those bitter hostilities which the suppression of the Seine had created and which had, in former years on different occasions, led to confusion, riot and bloodshed, the Fishing this past season was pursued in an orderly and quiet manner, and with very marked success'.
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