HMAP Dataset 12: North-west Scotland Fisheries

For much of the twentieth century, the fortunes of the Scottish fishing industry were closely related to those of the herring fishery. As a consequence, total fish landings increased to unprecedented levels before 1914 due to the expansion in demand for herring products in northern Europe and the introduction of steam power into the herring fleet, a technological advance that greatly improved its catching capacity. However, the collapse of the German and Russian markets during and after the First World War depressed the herring fishery and it was not until the 1950s that landings began to increase appreciably once more, a trend that continued until the late 1970s when the herring fishery was closed for four years to enable the much-depleted stock to recover.