BRITISH FISHERIES It is worth while in a study of fisheries to consider the British fisheries in some detail because they are, so far as sea-fishing is concerned, the most highly organised in the world, with the possible exception of those of Japan. The inland fisheries of Great Britain are of little commercial significance. The salmon fisheries are exploited commercially, and have thus a certain importance, but reliable statistics df the catch of salmon in the British Isles are not available. The salmon fisheries of many of the rivers of Great Britain have suffered from reckless pollution. At their best they could not bear comparison in the commercial sense with those of the western rivers of North America which provide, in the various breeds of Pacific salmon, the raw material of a great canning industry and trade. The value of the trout and freshwater fisheries of Great Britain is almost wholly recreative.
It is as a deep-sea fishing nation that Great Britain is supreme, for no country has so great a fleet of powerful steam vessels equipped for distant voyages. Although some progress has lately been made in the use of the internal combustion engine for fishing vessels of the larger deep-sea types, steam is still the chief index of power and the following comparative table is, therefore, of interest: The steam-fishing vessels of Great Britain are chiefly trawlers and drifters, of which those with the widest range of fishing are steam trawlers. The following table affords an index of compara tive steam trawling power: Of the British steam trawlers, 1,222 fish from ports of Eng land and Wales, visiting the fishing grounds of the whole of the Continental Shelf, from Iceland to Morocco and from the Barentz sea to the west of Scotland, Rockall and the south west of Ire land.
The steam trawlers built in Great Britain during and since the World War conform fairly closely to three types which are dis tinguished as the "Mersey," "Castle" and "Strath" types. They are all steel built. The following table gives their usual di mensions: supply was curtailed by the strike of that year. Trawlers, liners and seiners take chiefly demersal fish (known to the trade as "white" fish) , i.e., fish normally found feeding at the bottom of the sea, but some mackerel are taken by the trawl and seine, and there has been an important development in recent years of trawling for herring. For a few years before the war this method of fishing for herring was actively practised at certain times and places by British vessels and is still used at the Smalls, but since the war it has been most highly developed by Germany. The relative values of the demersal and pelagic fisheries may be gauged by reference to the following figures : In considering these figures, regard must be had to the fact that since the war the herring fisheries, which depend for the most part upon the export trade in cured herrings, have suffered seri ously from the disorganisation of the markets of Europe, and particularly the markets of pre-war Russia, which country for merly absorbed more than so% of the export. The white fish fish eries, on the other hand, which depend mainly upon the home market for fresh fish have not been affected by post-war conditions to the same extent. The effects of the change may in part be gauged by reference to corresponding figures for the year 1913:— The "Mersey" type is that generally used for fishing in Ice landic and Murman coast waters; the "Castle" for the hake fish ery along the Atlantic Slope; the "Strath" for the North sea. The tendency is for the size and power of the steam trawlers used for the more distant voyages to increase.
Of the drifters some are still built of wood, but the majority of steel. The usual dimensions of drifters are as follows: A certain number of vessels are used alternatively for either drifting or trawling.
The ,relative importance of the different methods of fishing in Great Britain may be gauged by reference to the following figures: Although steam trawling is the predominant method of fishing for demersal fish in England and Wales, new methods are always being tried. The use of the Danish seine is a comparative novelty. This instrument is worked by the Danes from motor boats of comparatively small size, but, by their British imitators, mainly from steam vessels of the drifter type. There have been developments also of trawling in the direction of the improved efficiency of the trawl itself. A more recent enterprise which may be the precursor of more important developments is the commis sioning by a well-known firm of trawler owners of two vessels of over 3,5oo and io,000 gross tons, respectively, to exploit the waters west of Greenland. These vessels carry a large number of Nor wegian dories, which fish by line, bringing back their catches to the parent ships. The fish caught is in part sent by steam trawlers, acting as carriers, to England for immediate sale, and part of it is frozen and stored on board for future use. There is also machinery on board for the extraction of oil from the livers of fish, and for the turning of offal into fish meal ; so that, in effect, the parent ships are also floating factories. If this method stands the test of experience, the enterprise may be the forerunner of develop ments of a revolutionary character. Trawlers did excellent work in the World War when they were employed principally on mine sweeping service, usually armed with a light gun and a rifle or two.
There has been, especially since the introduction of steam power in the fishing industry, a growing tendency in Great Britain towards the centralization and industrialization of fisheries. The following table indicates the relative importance of the major fishing ports in which the commercial fisheries are chiefly con centrated (of the Scottish ports, Aberdeen and Granton alone are largely devoted to steam trawling; of the rest the herring fisheries supply the bulk of the catch, as is also the case of Yarmouth and Lowestoft among the English ports) : *In 5953 the total daily landings by foreign vessels direct from the fishing grounds was 520 tons.
From a general economic point of view this centralization has advantages, but it has had a regrettable sequel in the depression of the smaller fishing ports, which have been unable to withstand the competition of their more powerful and better organized rivals. Their contribution to the fish supply of the country is, in these days, no more than 5% of the total—but they have played a great part as a "nursery" of natural seamen for the mercantile marine and the royal navy and have been the chief source of strength of the life-boat service. With the centralization of the fisheries and the development of the steam trawler, by means of which a smaller number of men can catch a greater quantity of fish, the number of fishermen regularly employed has declined. This fact must be reckoned a misfortune to an island nation, the heart of a great empire dependent for its existence on the free dom of the seas and, therefore, on an adequate supply of seamen to sail and to defend the sea routes.