BRITAIN’S HERRING INDUSTRY

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 86, 5 January 1935, Page 13

BRITAIN’S HERRING INDUSTRY

Effect of Low Prices SAILING WITH LOWESTOFT FLEET A Wellington resident with an inside knowledge of the British fishing industry commented bitterly on the failure of the herring season, due to low prices, which was reported in “The Dominion” this week. “As 1 have sailed many times with the drifters out of Lowestoft,” lie said, “I am able to realise just how disas-' trous for the fishermen such a situation must be. The fishing boats are run on a system of credit, a ‘cautioner’ putting up the money for storing and fitting out, and the proceeds of the catch, after immediate expenses have been met, being divided on the basis of a share for the ship, a share for the nets, which are usually provided by members of the crew, aud a share to be divided among the men themselves. Should the season fail, not only are the men left destitute to face the winter, but the ‘cautioner’ will be unable to advance money for the work of refitting the ship, which keeps the fisherfolk employed during the off season. “The herring shoals appear early in May, off Stornaway, and the fleets commence fishing there and in the outer islands. Afterward they join the Dutchmen and operate out of Balta Sound in the Shetlands. During the summer they work southward, following the migration of the shoals, by way of Lerwick, Orkney, Wick, Fraserburgh, and Peterhead; and in late autumn they fish out of Yarmouth and Lowestoft. The herrings spawn in spring off the Firth of Forth, Cape Wrath, the Hebrides, and the Skagerrak; from August to September they are found on the north and east coasts of Scotland, off Northumberland, and as far south as the Wash; their winter spawning grounds are off Cap d’Antifer, Devon, and Cornwall. It is this migration that the fishing fleets pursue. “The herring breeds on the sea bottom, and at the end of its first year appears on the coast as the English whitebait, but from then, until in its third to eighth year, it attains maturity, it feeds in the open sea. When fully grown it shoals and migrates in vast numbers, swimming some two or three fathoms deep, and it is then that it may be taken by drifting. Working the Nets. “Anyone who has crossed the Channel in autumn will be familiar with the red riding-sails of the drifters, and will have seen the little red flags that mark the nets dotted about the sea rather like the flags on a golf links. The nets are each about 50 or 60 yards long by a dozen deep, and a single drifter may ‘shoot’ as many as 85, joined to form a perpendicular wall of netting set ten feet below the surface and maintained there by pellets of cork attached by strops to the head-line, and by lead sinkers at the foot. This wall of net may be as many as three miles in length, and it effectively bars the progress of the shoal. The mesh, about 30 or 32 to the yard, traps the larger fish by the gills, but lets the smaller fry go free. Believe’ me, it is no light task to shoot several miles of net, and it is even more laborious to haul it aboard again. “Hauling the net is done by means of a steam winch, and as the little ship is usually tossing madly on the short steep seas typical of that part of the North Atlantic, there is never a constant strain, and there is considerable danger of tearing the nets. At one minute, as the ship rises on the swell, the nefis jerked tight; the next It relaxes as she rolls in the trough of the wave. The strain and labour of hauling cannot cease until the long job Is completed. “These fishermen of the North Sea, bluff, hearty, blue-eyed men with weather-beaten faces and hands, are born seamen and can navigate safely by lead alone when the Channel fog precludes as much as a glimpse of the sky. They often seem to know their bearings by instinct, and thanks to this ability, they were able to render valuable service during the war. Season’s Harvest. “Steam has replaced sail in the fishing fleets, and the only old-type craft of any importance that are still extensively used are the cobles of Yorkshire and the ketches of Brixham. Great Britain still boasts the world’s largest fishing fleet, and Lowestoft is one of the chief ports of the industry. During the fishing season between 250 aud 400 tons of wet fish are landed daily, the only ports showing higher figures being Grimsby, Hull, Aberdeen, and Yarmouth. Numbers of Scottish fishwives flock annually to Lowestoft for the packing of the catch, which is cured as salt or pickled fish for export; and kippers, bloaters or red herrings for home consumption. The scales are used, too, for they contain the iridescent substance known as guanin, which is used in the manufacture of artificial

pearls. When the wharves are covered wi_th shining basketfuls of wet fish, and the Inner Harbour is packed with drifters, it is a very pretty sight. But since the fall in the market I understand that many of the vessels have been permanently laid up, and the oldtime activity is on the wane.”