440 DEPTHS OF THE OCEAN chap, vn 



sentative of the quantities living in the sea. For instance, it is 

 clear that the intensity of fishing is not only determined by the 

 abundance of fish, the prices and the distances to fish markets 

 being (among others) very important points. But notwith- 

 standing these drawbacks, we possess at the present time hardly 

 any better means of judging of the abundance of fish in different 

 areas than the information regarding the capture of edible fish 

 contained in the fishery statistics of recent years. An enormous 

 fleet of modern fishing steamers (see Fig. 311) is now dis- 

 tributed from Cape Kanin, at the mouth of the White Sea, 

 down to Morocco, that is to say, over the area investigated by 

 the " Michael Sars." 



From the statistics published by Dr. Kyle of the Inter- 

 national Bureau for the Study of the Sea, we have compiled 

 two tables recording the capture of bottom-fish in 1906. One 

 (Table A) shows the catch of each species in each fishing area 

 expressed in percentages of the quantity of the species landed 

 from all areas ; the other (Table B) shows the catch of each 

 species expressed in percentages of the aggregate quantity 

 landed from each area. The tables deal with nearly a million 

 tons of fish of all kinds from all waters, the quantities varying 

 greatly in different areas. First of all is the North Sea with 

 nearly 400,000 tons, or nearly 40 per cent of the total quantity ; 

 then comes the coast of Norway, north of Stat, with 28 per cent, 

 Iceland with 18 per cent, the Faroe Islands with 4 per cent, the 

 region north-west of the British Isles with 5 per cent, the Bay 

 of Biscay, Portugal, and Morocco with less than ^ per cent 

 each. Among the different bottom-fish the cod plays the most 

 important part with no less than 44 per cent, next comes the 

 haddock with 25 per cent, plaice with 6|- per cent, saithe with 

 3|- per cent, ling 3 per cent, and hake with a little above 

 2 per cent, of the total quantity. 



Considering now the abundance of each species in each of 

 the nine areas recognised by the fishery statistics, we first 

 observe that most of the species have their maximum abundance 

 in the North Sea. This applies principally to the haddock, 

 the whiting, the species of Bot/ms, the plaice, the lemon sole, 

 and the dab. The intensity of the fishing in the North Sea 

 is, of course, to some extent responsible for this. But never- 

 theless we find several exceptions. Thus the Norway haddock 

 (Sebastes), the cod, the saithe, and the tusk are taken in the 

 greatest quantities off the coast of Norway, the halibut at 

 Iceland. On the other hand, we find in regard to dog-fish. 



