Wicks former fishing industry

[Chrisf1961]

Ive been watching the Trawlermen series on sky recently and marvelled at the bravery of these guys who risk their lives in all weathers.
It got me thinking of the days of the Herring fishing in Wick. What actually happened for it to virtually dissapear ? and also why cant it be reseurected or perhaps is it a case of there is no Herring about nowadays?
Anyone help

[ducati]

Ive been watching the Trawlermen series on sky recently and marvelled at the bravery of these guys who risk their lives in all weathers.
It got me thinking of the days of the Herring fishing in Wick. What actually happened for it to virtually dissapear ? and also why cant it be reseurected or perhaps is it a case of there is no Herring about nowadays?
Anyone help

Yes. There is no Herring, no Cod and no, many other species. The beginning of the end of the fishing industry (not just in Wick) was the introduction of efficient trawlers that could empty a fishing ground in a season.

[Chrisf1961]

Hi Ducati thanks for the reply
So are you saying basically its been over fished and the stocks have never replenished ? surely out in the North Sea theres Herring?

[ducati]

A good article here: http://www.thefishsite.com/articles/887/herring-stocks-in-the-north-sea

[Dog-eared]

The "Herring Boom " decimated the species.
At least it made sure the black slaves in America had something to eat.

[Duncansby]

The herring industry was interupted by WWI and when the fishermen returned the industry was declining. After WWII there was a shift from herring to white fish and shellfish. Increasing technological advances also meant that there were fewer people involved in the industry. So all of the gutters who would travel round the country depending on where the work was would be unemployed.

If you haven't already seen it you could try Ian Sutherland's book The fishing industry of Caithness

[Amy-Winehouse]

Ive been watching the Trawlermen series on sky recently and marvelled at the bravery of these guys who risk their lives in all weathers.
It got me thinking of the days of the Herring fishing in Wick. What actually happened for it to virtually dissapear ? and also why cant it be reseurected or perhaps is it a case of there is no Herring about nowadays?
Anyone help

There are Herring about, just the boats are soo much more efficient at catching them these days, 130 years ago they had to come in an land every day & would maybe only catch 10 - 20 cran whereas now these pelagic trawlers can catch up to 1000 tonnes in 1 haul then go in and land & tie up until they get another quota to catch.

Efficiency is what happned to the industry , bigger boats , meaning they could go to Shetland where there was an awful lot more fish to catch. As a previous poster said the market changed to white fish such as Haddock & cod , so there was a lot less demand for Herring. It was still in demand in the Baltics but not so much here.

It started to decline here & then by the 1950`s there werent too many drifters left fishing from Wick, most had changed over to the seine net or trawling for white fish