Orkney is referred to as showing the beneficial effect of
separating the occupation of fishing from that of farming. It is
not, however, certain that the immediate separation of fishing
and farming in Shetland is either possible or desirable. It is held
by some of the chief opponents of truck in Shetland that the land
will be most profitably managed under a system of sheep farming,
and that the fisheries also will be most productive if the fishermen
are not dependent for a material part of their subsistence upon
their crofts, but are stimulated by necessity to go to sea during the
greater part of the year. The 'improvements' which have been
begun with the view of effecting this separation on the Garth and
Annsbrae estates, have given rise to much of the indignation
which the introduction the of sheep farming and depopulation
has been wont to excite in similar cases. Nothing but actual
experiment, however, will prove whether cod and ling fishery
can be prosecuted successfully from the coasts of Shetland in
winter. The fishermen here do not, like those of Wick, described
in the paper of Mr. M'Lennan, fish all the year round in modes
adapted to the varying seasons. Almost their only profitable
fishing is in the summer months; and it seems to be certain that
the haaf fishing could not be successfully prosecuted in winter
with the present open boats. These, buoyant and wonderfully safe
and handy as they are, afford no shelter, and cannot in stormy
winter weather keep the sea for any length of time. When a storm
comes on the Shetland fisherman makes for land, although it is in
approaching it that he meets with the dangerous tideways in which
the shipwrecks of his comrades have usually taken place. In
winter and spring these storms are so frequent and so sudden,
that it is impossible for open boats to pursue the haaf fishing
successfully. It is disputed whether larger vessels, such as the
smacks employed in the Faroe fishing, or those of the Grimsby
and Yarmouth men, could carry on the long-line fishing in the
deep water and rocky bottom of the Shetland haul, and the best
authorities say that they could not, because on that fishing ground
the lines cannot be taken in by the boats while sailing. It does not,
however, appear whether recent attempts have been made on a
sufficiently large scale to justify a decision in the negative; and it
is satisfactory to know that a company has been formed for the
express purpose of extending the season of the ling fishing, and
carrying it on without the ordinary connection with a shop.
[Appx. p. 61; C. Williamson, 10,841; L.F.U. Garriock, 12,478,
etc.; C. Williamson, 10,839, 10,794; J. Walker, 15,941, 15,952.]