The herring fishery is prosecuted in Shetland to a very limited
extent, and in late years has not been fortunate. It has been said
that this want of success is because the men of Shetland do not go
to the herring fishing till late in the year, when the shoals have
passed them. In 1833 the herring fishing in Shetland is stated to
have employed 500 boats and 2500 men; and the total number of
barrels cured to have been 10,000 in 1830, 20,000 in 1831, 28,000
in 1832, and 36,000 in 1833.* It is carried on in August and
September by some of the men who have been engaged in the ling
fishery during the earlier part of the season. The men are paid at a
fixed rate per cran, as at Wick, the men buying from the curer nets,
which are put into their accounts. A witness stated that it took
him, or rather his crew, between eight and nine years to pay off the
price of his nets, 'because they had lean fishings.' The price of the
herrings is credited to the men at the annual settlement.
*Mr. Anderson's pamphlet on the 'Herring and White Fisheries in
the Shetland Islands,' gives an account of the herring fishing as it
existed in 1834, showing that it was prosecuted then, as it is now,
under the same circumstances as to truck and tenure as have been
detailed with regard to the ling fishery.
[T. Robertson, 8605; W. Williamson, 10,337.]
Mr. J. Robertson, sen., describes his recent experience in the
herring fishery in the north-west of the Mainland. He arranged
with some of the men who fished ling for him in summer that they
should fish herring also for him, instead of Mr. Adie, for whom
they had in previous years gone to the herring fishing. It was part
of the arrangement that he should 'clear them off with Mr. Adie,'
by paying their debts in accounts with him. It thus cost Mr.
Robertson £300 in cash advances, which, he says, 'account for the
large amount of debt shown to be due in 1870' by his fishermen.
These men get half the fish for their labour, and the other half goes
to the credit of the boat and nets supplied by the merchant. The
price of the herring is the same as that paid by Messrs. Hay & Co.
[J. Robertson, sen., 14,108; 14,126.]
It would seem that the large sum required for nets is apt, as at
Wick, to lay upon the fisherman an amount of debt which he is
ill able to bear.
[C. Sinclair, 1135.]