m THE TUEBOT AND TUEBOT CULTUEE 



Tons. 

 Steam trawlers landed .... 2,792 

 Sailing trawlers ..... 406 

 Inshore vessels ..... 36 



First-class liners . . . . . II 



The turbot is, therefore, mainly a steam-trawler fish, and 

 has failed to interest some ' longshore ' naturalists. Yet 

 88 per cent, of the catch in the North Sea is estimated by 

 Hjort (Deaths of Ocean, p. 451) to come from comparatively 

 shallow banks at depths between 10 and 30 fathoms, though 

 they are caught also at what he calls the ' medium depths ' 

 (25-50 fathoms). 



Fluctuations in the Catch in the North Sea 



East coast landings by first-class English vessels in the North 

 Sea have varied as follows : 



1912. 1913. 



Tons. Tons. 



2,396 2,552 



292 276 



2,688 2,828 



So that the turbot, which is the trawlerman's most valuable 

 prize, and which is, presumably, hunted as indefatigably as 

 any fish which swims in the North Sea, showed no sign at all, 

 in this short cycle of six years, that it was being ' fished out '. 



Life- History 



Holt {Journ. M.BA., 1891-2, p. 399) hatched the eggs^ in 

 1892, and first described the larvae, which, however, died 

 within a few days. And Fulton and Dannevig carried the 

 larvae through the post-larval stage at Dunbar to the disappear- 

 ance of the yolk-sac on the seventh day. They remarked -on 

 the great hardiness of the fish, and were hopeful that it might 

 eventually be reared right through the critical period. The 

 spawning grounds were, however, far distant from Dunbar. 

 Those discovered in the North Sea are situated in the extreme 

 south-west at 5 to 20 fathoms ; and others have been located 

 to the south and west of Britain, and in the Mediterranean, in 

 relatively shallow water. In the Mediterranean (Marseille) 

 larvae have been caught on the 2nd March. 



It was left to French scientists to carry on the investigations 

 in laboratories nearer to the big spawning grounds. Fabre- 

 Domergue and Bietrix tried, and failed, to hatch the eggs at 



1 Turbot eggs measure about -04 inch in diameter, i. e. 1,057,000 to the fluid 

 quart. 



