Scottish Fish and English Trawlers
By SETON GORDON
STEAM trawlers are fishing vessels whiCh catch chiefly white fish inhabiting the sea bottom, by means of a trawl net which is dragged slowly along the floor of the ocean. They are powerful, seaworthy vessels, able to cruise far from their home ports, and they steam north to the fishing grounds off northern Norway, Iceland, south Greenland, and even Spitsbergen. Others trawl in our home waters. To protect the interests of our in- shore fishermen the British Government permits no trawler to fish within three miles of the coast or of the nearest island. The Bill now before Parliament, and called the Illegal Trawling Act, is to increase the present inadequate penalties imposed on trawlers convicted of fishing within the three-mile limit. Scotland, and especially the west of Scotland, is greatly interested in this new Bill. The question of in-shore trawling is not a new one, but the raids by trawlers within the three-mile limit have so largely increased during recent years that public attention has been drawn at last to this illegal practice.
During the past three months two Fleetwood trailers by their behaviour in west Highland waters have aroused public indignation. In the darkness of a winter night near the close of the year 1933, H.M. Fishery Patrol Doon ' detected a trawler fishing within the three-mile limit off the island of Vatersay in the Outer Hebrides. The trawler was boarded, and was given the order to proceed to Stornoway, and a leading seaman of the Doon ' was placed in charge of her. The trawler disobeyed the cruiser's order, and signalled instead that she was proceeding to her home port of Fleetwood, in Lancashire. The patrol vessel was no faster than the trawler, and a long pursuit of over three hundred miles ensued. It was not,- indeed, till Fleetwood had been reached that the trawler was caught and brought back to Stornoway. The expense of that long pursuit of several hundred miles comes out of the British taxpayer's ,pockets !
The second case was tried in the Sheriff Court of Stornoway, in the Outer Hebrides, in January. , A trawler was detected fishing within the three-mile limit off the Lewis coast at 2 a.m. and, although called upon by the fishery cruiser to stop by (1) searchlight, (2)•lamp, (3) rounds of gunfire, (4) flag, and (5) megaphone at close range, she ignored all these signals, and the pursuit continued at the British taxpayer'S expense from 2 a.m. until the late afternoon, first along the shore of the Minch and subsequently into the open Atlantic, past the Butt of Lewis. During the pursuit the crew of the trawler were masked and her fishing number and port of registry were obscured by a coating of thick oil, which a disguised man constantly renewed. The trawler was convicted by the Sheriff, and the maximum penalties were imposed. Despite the general public indignation, a strong agitation has been initiated by the trawler-owners against the increased penalties of the new Bill on the ground that they would penalize skippers who honestly believed themselves to be outside the three-mile limit, and had been carried inshore by ocean currents. From my own observations I can show that, in my own district at all events, this illegal trawling is deliberate. The district is the north-west of Skyc, the illegal trawling-ground the mouth of Loch Snizort, and the season early spring. Loch Snizort at its mouth is six miles wide, and as the Ascrib Islands lie near the mouth of the loch, the whole of the loch is obviously an area within the three-mile limit. In early spring large shoals of cod enter Loch Snizort to spawn, and each year trawlers, chiefly from the English fishing port of Fleetwood, steam into the loch, and trawl within the three mile limit. At first this trawling was done chiefly at night, but during the last few years the trawlers have worked openly by day. Besides the great number of cod which are trawled on their spawning-beds the trawlers must do great damage to the spawn of the fish. I have seen as many as three trawlers in broad daylight trawling in Loch Snizort and because of the wide outlook from my house. I am able to follow their movements with, or without, a telescope.
Near the mouth of the loch is the small crafting and fishing township of Camus Mor. One evening, in March, 1932, three boats from Camus Mor set their long lines at the mouth of Loch Snizort. During the hours of darkness a number of trawlers were seen working in the loch, and in the morning when the three boats went out to lift their lines they found that the whole of their gear had been trawled up. These poor men in one night lost in all one thousand hooks, and their loss in money was roughly £30, besides the value of the catch—let us say £10. The following year the first boat's crew to set their long lines in the same waters found, on lifting the lines, that one half of them had been trawled up. This happened at the beginning of the cod-fishing season, and very naturally no boat's crew after that day risked their lines on the same groundS.- Thus the local fishermen had the disappoint- ment of seeing their loch trawled by English trawlers while they were obliged to go without the fish on which they and their families depended.
I have described what has happened on the Loch Snizort cod banks as they are in sight of my house, but the same story of illegal trawling and 'destruction of the inshore fishermen's gear may be-heard at Broad Bay in Lewis, on the banks of South Ronay (between Skye and Applecross), in Loch Dunvegan of Skye, and in many other districts of the western seaboard and the islands. English trawlers are the chief offenders, and Scottish trawlers arc less often seen. Foreign trawlers may be unpopular off the east of Scotland and in the Moray Firth, but the inshore fishermen of the west have no grievance against them.
The skippers of trawlers who habitually trawl within the three-mile limit are greatly in the minority. The majority are .honest fishermen who sail in the stormy season of the year to Iceland, Bear Island, and the White Sea for their catches. It is thus unfortunate that the good name of a great industry is in grave danger of being lost by the acts of the small minority. Our inshore- fishermen are rightly indignant, and are inclined to blame the patrol vessels. The officers of the patrols, however, are under a great disadvantage—their vessels are no faster than the trawlers, and it must be aggra- vating in the extreme to chase a trawler hour after hour without being able to overhaul her. I would urge two alternatives to remedy this state of affairs. (1) Faster patrol vessels should be built. (2) The com- manding officer of the cruiser should be empowered, if his first two blank shots as a signal to stop are ignored, to fire a third charge of live shot. I would suggest a solid, fuseless projectile, fired across the bows, or high; to pierce the funnel. Officers who are pursuing a vessel presumed to be engaged in smuggling have this power —why should it be denied to fishery officers ? I am convinced that, in practice, it would very rarely be found necessary to use this reserve weapon, for a trawler would be wise enough to " heave to " on hearing the first two blank shots.
The Irish Free State has just given her fishery officers this power—why should we withhold it ?
Previous page
