SCOTCH HERRING FISHING.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 883, 1 August 1910, Page 10

SCOTCH HERRING FISHING.

■'. .■>- ■-- ~—... »-'■ .. - , On the "West Coast of Scotland and the Donegal Coast of Ireland, the months of May and June have been, up to now, acknowledged by the whole fishing fraternity to lie the legitimate season for. fishing tho adjacent waters; and to -fish for herrings at Shetland or on tho East Coast of Scotland in the month of Major the early weeks in June, would have been considered, not.so very long ago, the extreme height of folly. The current season (says the "Fraserburgh Herald") has sent all' recognised rules, topsyturvy. In Ireland the fishings are a mere shadow of their former selves, while at Stornoway and Castle Bay, on the West Coast of Scotland, there is scarcely enough of tho substance to mnko a shadow. Already many fishermen and merchants, with their workpeople, have left these fishing centres for fresh fields of enterprise, and it looks as if the "legitimate" season was over, before it had properly begun. The most pronounced failure is probably Stornoway, with the boats and merchants clearing out, and the total catch for tho sea'son only about 10,000 crans—what would have been looked upon as nothing more than a moderately fair day's work, at the same port, in former times. Though, not to compare uilli the landings at Lcra-ick, catches have been brought in to Fraserburgh and Peterhead, where curing has been going on for about a fortnight. Indeed, a direct cargo of cured fish has already left Fraserburgh for the Baltic, the like of 'which never bofore happened in the month of May..