28.— DESCRIPTION OF THE MARINE HATCHERY AT DUNBAR. SCOTLAND. 



BY DR. T. WEMYSS FULTON, F. R. S. E., 



Superintendent of Scientific Investigations, Fishery Board for Scotland. 



In a paper by Prof. W. C. Mcintosh, included in the present Bulletin (pp. 241-25G), 

 reference is made to an establishment for hatching marine food-fishes at Dunbar, 

 which has been erected by the Fishery Board for Scotland, and of which 1 have been 

 asked to furnish a description. It may be briefly premised that in Scotland, as in so 

 many other countries, the comparative scarcity of certain important sea fishes has 

 been manifested in recent years. This has been especially evident with the more val- 

 uable Pleuronectidce, such as turbot, brill, and plaice. Notwithstanding the extension 

 of beam- trawling — the method of fishing by which the pleurouectids are principally 

 obtained — the number captured off the Scottish coasts has diminished year by year; 

 as indeed they have diminished throughout the North Sea geuerally. 



Certain regulative measures have been tried, which, if it can not be said they 

 have quite failed, have at least not had the results they were expected to have. In 

 188C and subsequent years beam-trawling was prohibited within certain firths and 

 areas; and in 1889 practically the whole of the territorial waters of Scotland, and 

 also some bays aud firths which extended beyond the territorial limit, were closed by 

 statute to this mode of fishing. But the quantity of flatfishes lauded continues to 

 decrease. That this is not due to restriction in the extent of fishing ground in con- 

 sequence of the prohibition referred to, is shown by the scientific observations and 

 experiments conducted by the Garland since 1886. These are given in full detail in 

 the various annual reports of the Fishery Board; but it may be mentioned here that 

 while in the period 188G-1888 the average number of flatfishes captured in each haul 

 of the net in the protected waters of the Firth of Forth aud St. Andrews Bay was 

 188-6, it was only 136-4 in the period 1890-1892. The diminution indicated is prob- 

 ably largely explained by increased trawling in the waters outside the territorial zone 

 1 where the fishes cougregate at the spawning season and where fishing operations 

 can not be interfered with under any powers at present existing. At all events it 

 shows that the regulative measures referred to have not succeeded in increasing the 

 abundance of fish in the protected waters, and points to a hopeful field for the appli- 

 cation of fish-hatching. 



When it was decided to proceed with the erection of a hatchery for sea fish, the 

 writer visited and inspected the well-known Norwegian establishment at Floderig, 

 which is under the direction of Capt. G. M. Dannevig; and later this gentleman came 

 to Scotland and made an examination of the site proposed at Dunbar. He having 

 reported favorably, work was thereafter commenced, and a hatchery on the model of 



257 

 F. C. B. 1893—17 



