DE. LE DANOIS ON HAKE 123 



Region . 

 South of Ireland, 51° 16' N., 8° 10' W. ; 



55 fathoms . . . 

 North-west of Scotland, 58° 42' N., 



6° 13' W. ; 60 fathoms 

 North of Scotland, 58° 44' N., 3° 21' W. ; 



62 fathoms 



Off Moray Firth 



Skagerrak and Cattegat .... 



Now b}^ comparing these discoveries of Schmidt and his 

 colleagues with the actual time at which hake are chiefly 

 caught — that is to say : 



Off Morocco . . Dec. and Jan. Mouth of Channel . March to Sept. 



Mediterranean . . January Southward of Ireland Apr. to Sept. 



Bay of Biscay . . Mar. to Dec. Westward of Ireland May to Sept.^ 



English Channel . Apr. to June Northward of Scot- 

 land . . . June to Sept.^ 



Le Danois is able to tell us that hake spawn off Spain and 

 Morocco, and in the Mediterranean in ivinter ; in the Bay of 

 Biscay and up our own w^est coast from spring to autumn. 

 At the westernmost end of the Channel it spawns, Le Danois 

 thinks, for a very short period — chiefly in May. But this 

 hardly accords with the facts that a ripe female was caught 

 by the OitJiona outside the Eddystone in July 1913, and that 

 thirteen hake fry ranging from 4-5 to 13 millimetres in length 

 were obtained by Clark off Plymouth this year (1920) — betw^een 

 31st July and 17th August. So Clark is indubitably right in 

 placing the spawning period in the mouth of the Channel at 

 June to August. It appears to be certain that hake do not 

 spawn, at any rate freely, in the North Sea, and that the eggs 

 found off Moray Firth had been drifted in from the north coast 

 of Scotland. 



Sea Temperature and Salinity on the Spaivniny Grounds 



Right through the whole of their range hake seem to live 

 for choice in water between 48° F. and 50° F. in temperature, 

 with a salinity of 35-20 per mille — that is to say, 35-20 pounds 

 of salts (chlorides, sulphates, bromides, and carbonates) 

 dissolved in 1,000 pounds of water. These, at any rate, are 

 the conditions which prevail when the shoals first appear off 

 Morocco in January, and off the north of Scotland in April, 

 and in all the waters in which the spawners are found in the 

 interim. 



^ Le Danois is wrong here ; the West of Ireland fishing is mainly from August 

 to December, and the fishing in the Minch is winter fishing. 



