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Fishing off North Inishowen in the 1880 and 1890s
By W.P. Gaskell
Report of a Congested Districts Board Inspector (1894)
The sea fishery off the coast of Malin Head to Moville or Greencastle
is important: the fish caught being cod, garvan, haddock, halibut,
herring, ling, plaice, pollock, sole, turbot and salmon: few mackerel
are caught (excepting in the year 1880, when a shoal came close
inshore round Malin Head, and were caught in bags and baskets from
the rocks and beach). The number of men and boats actually engaged
in fishing, as ascertained at different boat 'ports' is 109 boats
with 685 men. The boats are open yawls of about twenty four feet
keel. Besides these there are thirty-five 'otterers', yawls of about
thirty feet keel, decked and fitted with standing rigging, which
are laid up in winter, but trawl from February to September. These
belong to Greencastle and Moville, and the west shore of Lough Foyle
exclusively. Facilities for the sale of fish can hardly be said
to exist. Fish caught off Malin Head must be carted twenty miles
to Moville if they are to be sold as fresh' or they must be first
cured and then sent by boats or carts, at great loss of fishing
time, to distant markets. Carndonagh, ten miles distant, is the
nearest; while the other markets are Buncrana, Rathmelton, Letterkenny
and Portrush.
Fish caught off Carthage Electoral Division are carted twenty miles
by a difficult road to Moville if sold for fresh. Culdaff and Tremone
men must boat their fish to Greencastle or Magilligan Point, a sail
and pull of twenty miles each way at the end of their day's or night's
fishing; or they must sell their fish to dealers to be carted from
Culdaff, twelve miles by a fair road, from Tremone, six miles by
a very steep mountain road to Moville. The quantity of fish bought
for export at Moville, Greencastle and Magilligan Point in 1893
amounted, according to detailed figures supplied to me at Moville
and Greencastle, to upwards of 8,000 boxes, of over 600 tons weight;
this includes turbot and other flat fish, cod, crabs and lobsters,
but not salmon, herring or mackerel; and would probably represent
the bulk of the crabs and lobsters caught round the whole coast
of this district, the whole of flat fish, and almost all the cod
taken by the Innishrahull, Carthage, Culdaff and Greencastle fishermen,
all of whom use spillets, and the best of the cod off Malin Head
with hand lines only. The Innishrahull turbot are generally sent
to Londonderry for despatch thence to various destinations.
Although Moville is twenty miles from Malin Head, it is the surest
market which the Ardmalin have for fresh fish, inasmuch as fish
can be sold there for shipment every week day; whereas at Carndonagh
there is only a weekly market, and the market day is Monday. At
this market a great weight of cured fish is sold throughout the
year; the number of cart-loads brought in being never less than
from ten to twenty and often reaching, as I am informed in different
quarters, from 50 to 100 in the spring months. On Monday before
Easter the number of carts of fish all 'corned' (mild cured) pollock,
was 40; and on Easter Monday 50; containing on each day about 500
dozens. The weather being fine, the market on each occasion was
crowded, and business brisk. By an early hour in the evening not
a fish remained unsold, the average price being about 4 shillings
a dozen.
The prices paid at Moville are ruled by Scotch and English markets,
and vary as follows: For cod from 5 shillings to 15 shillings a
dozen or box, the average in the winter months when fish are in
prime condition, being 10 shillings. Extreme low and high prices
rarely touched are 2 shillings and sixpence and 20 shillings. Ten
fine fish will fill a box, but fourteen are usually reckoned to
the dozen, and a 'made-up-dozen' may consist of any number of smaller
fish. In the spring months the average price will be 7 shillings
per dozen; for plaice 1 shilling and ninepence to 2 shillings; for
sole about 8 pence per pound; for turbot from sixpence to 10 pence
a pound; herring 6 pence to 1 shilling a score, for large lobsters
6 shillings a dozen; for crabs 3 shillings a dozen.
Excepting for herring, the year 1893 is said by many to have been
the worst fishing year in their recollection. According to the testimony
of the Poor Law Guardians of Greencastle Electoral Division it was
the worst in the last fifty years.
Off the Ardmalin Electoral Division, cod and pollock are taken,
if weather permits, from November to May inclusive. Glasson are
caught in June and July, on the other coast Electoral Divisions,
cod fishing is pursued from November to May, omitting March. After
May the boats are engaged fishing for salmon and flat fish. From
Malin Head to Culdaff the boats are but imperfectly equipped with
nets, and the men fish with hand lines only
From Culdaff to Greencastle boats are better found, and spillets
are used. In this part of the District many of the boats are the
property of persons in Moville, and the owner receives one share
of the fish caught. Mackerel nets are not used. These fish appear
off the mouth of the Foyle late in autumn. (The station officer
of Coastguards at Bunagee, Culdaff, informed me that he had not
seen a mackerel since he came there, His statement confirmed those
made to me by the fishermen at Malin Head).
The only salmon or freshwater fishery preserved in the district
outside the Foyle is that of the Culdaff river, which employs eight
boats and thirty two men, with nets and gear, from June to August
inclusive. The men work on shares, and their earnings may average
30 shillings a week. Besides the crews of these boats, ten men are
employed on shore at 15 shillings a week each for the same period.
Almost all the boats belonging to Greencastle and Tremone Electoral
Divisions 'drift' for salmon outside the Foyle, during about six
weeks of the summer. Seventy-four licences at £3 each were
issued for this purpose last year to as many boats. Their earnings
during that time may be from £20 to £40 a boat ( five
men each), half of which goes to the owner of the boat who pays
for the licence and provides the net. Out of the ten boats owned
by one man last summer two did not earn the price of their licences,
the other eight earned £160 together. The same owner when
working in a boat has fished 'eight nights for three salmon'. A
fish to hand' is considered a satisfactory take. For the Foyle and
Bann fisheries, a company called the Foyle and Bann fisheries Company
pay a rent of £20,000 a year between them, rather more than
twice their combined capital amongst the smallest class of farmers
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