282 DISCOVERY REPORTS 



principal fish captured at Fiume in 1879-80, ibid. p. 167), also mentions that the superiority of hooked 

 over net-caught hake was so marked that they could command an appreciably higher price. 



In the north records of M. merliicciiis from Iceland have been confirmed, but some from south- 

 west Greenland are more doubtful. Even at Iceland such stragglers are rare and represent the extreme 

 range of the species. Hake are not common in the North Sea, though there is a regular small-scale 

 immigration into the north-eastern portion of it. In fact the fish, which lives for a good part of the 

 year over deep water oflF the edge of the continental shelf, is essentially an inhabitant of warm tem- 

 perate waters from the west of Scotland southwards. Its southern limits in all probability are normally 

 defined by the limits of influence of the Canary current, which is cold relative to the tropical surface 

 waters south and west of it, and relatively rich in nutrient salts and all the larger forms of life (cf. 

 Hentschel, 1936, p. 243 and Beilage ix). 



M. merlucciiis, the merluce of heraldry, has been an important constituent of the fish food of the 

 western European nations throughout historic times. In Britain it has been the subject of various 

 commercial treaties from the time of King John to Queen Mary. Much was eaten during Lent. 

 Latterly it fell into disfavour, partly perhaps because the disestablishment of the Church Ted to a less 

 rigorous insistence upon traditional Lenten fare, but chiefly because improved boats and gear enabled 

 fishermen to catch far greater quantities of the choicer fish than before. In France, Spain and Portugal 

 It must always have been relatively important, owing to the lack of the colder-water gadoids near at 

 hand; but as recently as the second half of the last century we find leading ichthyologists in this 

 country dismissing it as a poor, coarse fish, of inferior table qualities. It is said, indeed, that the 

 German and Dutch names for hake, Stockfische or Stokvische (there are others), derive from the 

 habit of lettmg smack's boys keep them for ' stocker ', which makes it certain that they were practically 

 unsaleable. 



The rapid development of otter trawling, especially the introduction of steam trawling, at the turn 

 of the century saw a rapid decline in the proportion of prime fish landed (though of course the actual 

 quantity was at first increased), and the development of fried-fish shops greatly stimulated hake 

 trawling. Indeed, Hickling (1935a, pp. 70-1) has been able to show that there was serious depletion 

 of the stock through overfishing before the war of 1914-18. During that war all fish stocks recovered 

 to some extent, and with improved boats and gear (the V.D. trawl) and the development of deep-sea 

 traw mg on distant grounds throughout the whole latitudinal range of the species, British hake 

 trawling showed increasingly heavy catches until well into the 1920's. But the catch was only main- 

 tained by increased fishing efl^ort, as Hickling (1935., pp. 74-5) has so clearly demonstrated. Since 

 1925 catches declined and depletion continued until 1939. 



The importance of hake to the modern British trawling industry is very great. It is the staple 

 catch of our great west coast trawling ports, Fleetwood, Milford, Cardifl^ and Swansea. Even in 19^0 

 when decline of the stock was beginning to show itself, it ranked third of all our trawled fish whether 

 reckoned by quantity or by value. Only cod and haddock were more important. During 1920-5 the 

 British landings averaged 38,500 tons, and some of the fleet were working as far south as North Africa 



sZ^r' ^ V r' r'""^" P'"''^ '^' ''''''''^^ °f fi^h^^g by French and (latterly) modern 

 Spanish vessels, in the southern part of the range of the species, also greatly increased. Though the 



c^;ra"fi::::::rtrpeX^^^^^ 



rp, ., ,,,<,. y : 920 33 was ^1,532,000 per annum (Hickhng, 193 5 «, p. 74, fig 7) 



to No^th cllt T 7' ' t ""T ^r^^^'^'^' ""■ ''''''^'' ("^^^^^''^)' -"g- f-- Newfoundland 

 to No th Ca olina. To the south it has been recorded (from deep water only) as far as the Bahamas 

 and Florida (Longley and Hildebrand, 1941, p. 38). Panamas 



The history of the commercial exploitation of M. bilinearis aflfords a close parallel to that of the 





