FISHER, JOHN ARBUTHNOT FISHER, 1st Baron (1841- ), British admiral, was born on the 25th of January 1841, and entered the navy in June 1854. He served in the Baltic during the Crimean War, and was engaged as midshipman on the “Highflyer,” “Chesapeake” and “Furious,” in the Chinese War, in the operations required by the occupations of Canton, and of the Peiho forts in 1859. He became sub-lieutenant on the 25th of January 1860, and lieutenant on the 4th of November of the same year. The cessation of naval wars, at least of wars at sea in which the British navy had to take a part, after 1860, allowed few officers to gain distinction by actual services against the enemy. But they were provided with other ways of proving their ability by the sweeping revolution which transformed the construction, the armament, and the methods of propulsion of all the navies of the world, and with them the once accepted methods of combat. Lieutenant Fisher began his career as a commissioned officer in the year after the launching of the French “Gloire” had set going the long duel in construction between guns and armour. He early made his mark as a student of gunnery, and was promoted commander on the 2nd of August 1869, and post-captain on the 30th of October 1874. In this rank he was chosen to serve as president of the committee appointed to revise “The Gunnery Manual of the Fleet.” It was his already established reputation which pointed Captain Fisher out for the command of H.M.S. “Inflexible,” a vessel which, as the representative of a type, had supplied matter for much discussion. As captain of the “Inflexible” he took part in the bombardment of Alexandria (11th July 1882). The engagement was not arduous in itself, having been carried out against forts of inferior construction, indifferently armed, and worse garrisoned, but it supplied an opportunity for a display of gunnery, and it was conspicuous in the midst of a long naval peace. The “Inflexible” took a prominent part in the action, and her captain had the command of the naval brigade landed in Alexandria, where he adapted the ironclad train and commanded it in various skirmishes with the enemy. After the Egyptian campaign, he was, in succession, director of Naval Ordnance and Torpedoes (from October 1886 to May 1891); A.D.C. to Queen Victoria (18th June, 1887, to 2nd August 1890, at which date he became rear-admiral); admiral superintendent of Portsmouth dockyard (1891 to 1892); a lord commissioner of the navy and comptroller of the navy (1892 to 1897), and vice-admiral (8th May 1896); commander-in-chief on the North American and West Indian station (1897). In 1899 he acted as naval expert at the Hague Peace Conference, and on the 1st of July 1899 was appointed commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean. From the Mediterranean command, Admiral Fisher passed again to the admiralty as second sea lord in 1902, and became commander-in-chief at Portsmouth on the 31st of August 1903, from which post he passed to that of first sea lord. Besides holding the foreign Khedivial and Osmanieh orders, he was created K.C.B. in 1894 and G.C.B. in 1902. As first sea lord, during the years 1903-1909, Sir John Fisher had a predominant influence in all the far-reaching new measures of naval development and internal reform; and he was also one of the committee, known as Lord Esher’s committee, appointed in 1904 to report on the measures necessary to be taken to put the administration and organization of the British army on a sound footing. The changes in naval administration made under him were hotly canvassed among critics, who charged him with autocratic methods, and in 1906-1909 with undue subservience to the government’s desire for economy; and whatever the efficiency of his own methods at the admiralty, the fact was undeniable that for the first time for very many years the navy suffered, as a service, from the party-spirit which was aroused. It was notorious that Admiral Lord Charles Beresford in particular was acutely hostile to Sir John Fisher’s administration; and on his retirement in the spring of 1909 from the position of commander-in-chief of the Channel fleet, he put his charges and complaints before the government, and an inquiry was held by a small committee under the Prime Minister. Its report, published in August, was in favour of the Admiralty, though it encouraged the belief that some important suggestions as to the organization of a naval “general staff” would take effect. On the 9th of November Sir John Fisher was created a peer as Baron Fisher of Kilverstone, Norfolk. He retired from the Admiralty in January 1910.
FISHERIES,[1] a general term for the various operations engaged in for the capture of such aquatic creatures as are useful to man. From time immemorial fish have been captured by various forms of spears, nets, hooks and more elaborate apparatus, and a historical description of the methods and appliances that have been used would comprise a considerable portion of a treatise on the history of man. For the most part the operations of fishing have been comparable with those of primitive hunting rather than with agriculture; they have taken the least possible account of considerations affecting the supply; when one locality has been fished out, another has been resorted to. The increasing pressure on every source of food, and the enormous improvements in the catching power of the engines involved, has made some kind of regulation and control inevitable, with the result that in practically every civilized country there exists some authority for the investigation and regulation of fisheries.
The annexed table shows the department of state and the approximate expenditure on fisheries in some of the chief countries of the world. The figures are only approximate and are based on the expenditure for 1907. In the case of England and Wales the expenditure is not complete, as under the Sea Fisheries Regulation Act of 1888 the whole of the coast of England and Wales could be placed under local fisheries committees with power to levy rates for fishery purposes, and in a certain number of districts advantage has been taken of this act. But even with this addition, British expenditure on fisheries is less than that undertaken by most of the countries of northern Europe, although British fisheries are much more valuable than those of all the rest of Europe together.
Administration of Fisheries.
| Norway. | Sweden. | Denmark. | Germany. | Holland. | Belgium. | |
| Department of State | Trade and Industry and Agriculture | Agriculture | Agriculture | Imperial Department of Interior | Agriculture | Agriculture and Woods and Forests. |
| Approximate Annual Expenditure— | ||||||
| 1. Administration | £15,000 | £5,500 | £10,200 | Conducted by Maritime States. | £12,500 | . . |
| 2. Scientific Fishery Research | 5,000 | 4,500 | 6,300 | £27,750 | 2,500 | £1,000 |
| Canada. | U.S. America. | England and Wales. | Scotland | Ireland | |
| Department of State | Marine and Fisheries. | Bureau of Fisheries under Commerce and Labour. | Agriculture and Fisheries. | Fishery Board | Agriculture and Technical Instruction. |
| Approximate Annual Expenditure— | |||||
| 1. Administration | £159,000 | Conducted by Costal States | £8,000 | £13,000 | £10,000 |
| 2. Scientific Fishery Research | 48,000 | £141,000 | 14,000 (expended through agents) | 800 | . . |
The early years of the 20th century witnessed another great expansion of the sea fisheries of the United Kingdom. The herring fishery has been revolutionized partly by the successful introduction of steam drifters, which have markedly increased the aggregate catching power, and partly by the prosecution of the fishery on one part or other of the British coasts during the greater part of the year. The crews of many Scottish vessels which formerly worked at the herring and line fisheries in alternate seasons of the year now devote their energies almost entirely to the herring fishery, which they pursue in nomad fleets around all the coasts of Great Britain. The East Anglian drifters carry on their operations at different seasons of the year from Shetland in the north (for herrings) to Newlyn in the west (for mackerel). In Scotland the value of the nets employed on steam drifters has increased from £3000 in 1899 to £61,000 in 1906, and the average annual catch of herrings has increased from about four to about five million cwts. during the past ten years. In England also the annual catch of herrings, which reached a total of two million cwts. for the first time in 1899, has exceeded three millions in each year from 1902 to 1905.
In steam trawling also great enterprise has been shown. In 1906 Messrs Hellyer of Hull launched a new steam trawling fleet of 50 vessels for working the North Sea grounds, and the delivery of new steam trawlers at Grimsby was greater than at any previous period, these vessels being designed more especially to exploit the distant fishing grounds, the range of which has been extended from Morocco to the White Sea. About 100 vessels were added to the Grimsby fleet in the course of twelve months. These new vessels measure about 140 ft. in length and over 20 ft. in beam, and exceed 250 tons gross tonnage, the accommodation both for fish and crews being considerably in excess of that provided in vessels of this class hitherto.