126 DR. LE DAN0I8 ON HAKE 



The larvae are described by Schmidt as very ' thickset ' 

 when they first hatch out, but they gradually get more slender 

 as they grow. Holt has caught young hake under IJ inch 

 in length at a depth of 80 fathoms off the south-west coast of 

 Ireland, and this shows that the fry, after drifting at the surface, 

 go to the bottom when they are about an inch long. 



The Irish Survey caught fish measuring 6 inches to 7J inches 

 in March and May at 40 to 115 fathoms, and ten of 8 inches in 

 May in 53 fathoms. The fry — a few inches long — shown to 

 Hjort off Cape Bojador prove that the species must actually 

 spawn off the Moroccan coast. 



Maturity 



The hake is said to be capable of breeding when it is about 

 8 inches long. Le Danois recognizes that its scales could 

 furnish much useful information as to the age and growth of 

 individual specimens ; but this work has not as yet been 

 attempted. 



Future Investigations into Hake 



All this means that there is yet much to learn about the 

 life-history of hake, and we have seen that the British fishing 

 industry is greatly concerned that further inquiries should be 

 made. It reahzes, with Hjort, that on such knowledge depends 

 ' the life of the industry '. 



The International Council in 1920 has decided that the main 

 investigations into the species shall be made by French research 

 vessels, while British research vessels co-operate by collecting 

 for them data as to currents, sahnities, temperatures, and the 

 * small game '. There is every reason to congratulate our- 

 selves that these researches should be in the hands of the 

 countrymen of Le Danois and of Fabre-Domergue and Anthony. 

 No one is better equipped to ' rear ' hake fry and discover the 

 all-important mystery of their early feeding, or to read the 

 scales.! It is understood that Portugal and other nations 

 particularly interested in hake-fishing will send naturalists to 

 work on the French research vessels. It is to be hoped that 

 the expeditions will always include at least one British attache, 

 not only because Great Britain is the pioneer of the deep-sea 

 hake-trawl and the premier hake-tisher of all nations, but 

 because the success of the expedition will obviously be enhanced 

 if the scientists keep close touch — as Hjort has always done — 

 with the skippers of any British trawlers tht^y may be enabled 



' On the assumption that hake scales are 'readable' — a point on wliich the 

 writer can find no evidence. 



