Britain: An official handbook > 1956

BRITAIN: AN OFFICIAL HANDBOOK
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In Northern Ireland there were 650 regular fishermen and the landed weight of
British-caught fish was 129 tons per week. Northern Ireland consumes about one-
third of its own catches and exports the rest to Great Britain and to the Republic
of Ireland.
Fishing Ports and Markets
The principal fishing ports in England and Wales are Grimsby, Hull, Fleetwood,
Milford Haven and Lowestoft for white fish, and Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft
for herring; in Scotland the chief centres are Aberdeen and Granton for white fish,
which are caught all round the coast and particularly in the Moray Firth, and for
herring Peterhead, Fraserburgh, Shetland, Stornoway, the West Coast and the
Clyde; those in Northern Ireland are Ardglass, Portavogie and Kilkeel.
London is the principal wholesale distributing centre and Billingsgate Fish
Market handles an average of 600 tons a day.
Sea Fishing
The chief means of catching fish are by the use of nets—trawl, seine, drift and
ring—and by lining. Trawling is carried on in distant, middle and near waters for
demersal fish throughout the year, and seasonally for herring. The deep-sea trawler
fleet comprised 952 vessels at the end of 1954. Seining is chiefly used on the nearer
grounds, the principal catches being haddock, cod, whiting and plaice; 594 Scottish
and 60 Northern Ireland vessels engage in seine net fishing during most of the year,
while from Grimsby, Fleetwood and Whitehaven 72 such vessels are in regular
operation.
Drift nets are mainly used for herring and pilchard by 407 steam and motor
drifters; ring netting, a method of catching herring, is used seasonally in certain
districts by about 145 motor-boats. Long lining on grounds too rough for trawling
is carried on by a limited number of vessels (mainly Scottish), while small and hand
lining still provide employment for a large number of crews in autumn, winter and
early spring; cod, whiting and mackerel are caught.
The quantity and value of fish landed in the United Kingdom during the year
ended 31st December 1954 were as follows:
Wet Fish (demersal and pelagic)
Great Britain: 931,919 tons valued at £43>246,692
Northern Ireland: 6,712 tons valued at £154,850
Shell Fish
Great Britain: value £1,310,065
Northern Ireland: value £16,476.
Exports of fish from the United Kingdom—fresh, frozen, cured or canned—in
1954 were valued at £5,889,918.
Freshwater Fisheries
The principal commercial freshwater catches are salmon, grilse, sea-trout and
eels. In Scotland and Northern Ireland fixed nets along the coast and sweep nets
in rivers and estuaries are used; in England drift nets are used for catching salmon
in the sea. In England and Wales the value of the salmon catch is approximately
£250,000 a year, in Scotland it amounts to about £1 million, and in Northern
Ireland to some £200,000. In Northern Ireland eels are captured by long lines
and by eel nets placed in river weirs.
Sporting fishing is by rod and line in lakes, lochs, rivers and streams. Salmon,
grilse and sea-trout are the most important species, and the fishing rights command