LING 



135 



a North Sea fish, so the table would be much more interesting 

 if figures were available for comparison from the Icelandic and 

 Atlantic banks. Still, here is a great ocean migrant, running 

 from 3 to 7 feet in length, showing a steady dechne over 

 a period of six years. The writer has nowhere seen statements 

 that ling are being extirpated, but he has heard theories that 

 other fish were rapidly being wiped out which were based on 

 no more convincing evidence than this. 



The English Ling Grounds 

 There were landed from : 



Westward of Scotland 



North Sea 



Southward of Ireland 



Iceland 



Rockall 



Faeroe 



West of Ireland . 



North of Scotland 



Tons. 



3,606 



1,695 



1,489 



1,361 



536 



408 



394 



356 



Per cent. 



35-30 



15-62 



14-58 



13-32 



5-25 



4-00 



3-86 



3-49 



In the North Sea the distribution of the steamer catch was 

 as follows : 



(1) Northern Banks. 



Areas. Tons. 



F 1 . . . .359 



D 1 



CI 



E 



D2 



D3 



G 



352 



88 



226 



63 



14 



1 



1,103 



(2) Southern Banks. 

 Areas. Tons. 



B . . . .87 

 C2 . . . .122 

 C3 . . . . 1 

 A3 . . . . 1 



211 



(3) Undistinguished. 



190 tons. 



So ling is essentially a ' deep-sea ' fish, and 79 per cent, of 

 the catch comes from depths between 30 and 100 fathoms, and 

 one-third or more from between 50 and 100 fathoms. 



At still greater ^ depths — below the 100-fathom line down to 

 400 fathoms and over, and all away to the edge of the Con- 

 tinental platform from Spitzbergen and Bear Island along the 

 coasts of Norway, the North Sea plateau, the Faeroe Islands, 

 and along the Faeroe-Iceland ridge, come the ' Blue Ling ', 

 which a British research trawler has just found in 1920 on 

 ' Lousy Bank '. In southern waters — right down to Morocco 

 (where Hjort has caught it at 210 fathoms) occurs the ' Southern 

 Ling '. So our market ling have a wide range. 



* Depths of Ocean, p. 457 ; ibid , p. 454. 



