The Scotch fishermen catch over a million barrels of herrings annually, representing a value of about a million and a-half sterling.
[8] A recent number of Land and Water supplies the following information as to the fishing at Kinsale:--"The takes of fish have been so enormous and unprecedented that buyers can scarcely be found, even when, as now, mackerel are selling at one shilling per six score.
Piles of magnificent fish lie rotting in the sun.

The sides of Kinsale Harbour are strewn with them, and frequently, when they have become a little 'touched,' whole boat-loads are thrown overboard into the water.
This great waste is to be attributed to scarcity of hands to salt the fish and want of packing-boxes.

Some of the boats are said to have made as much as 500L.

this season.

The local fishing company are making active preparations for the approaching herring fishery, and it is anticipated that Kinsale may become one of the centres of this description of fishing." [9] Statistical Journal for March 1848.