WHITING 139 



The main distribution in the North Sea was : ' 



Depth. Daily Average. 



Area. " Fatltoms Tons. C'wts. 



fC 2 (East of Dogger) 20-30 6,542 1-63 



Southern IBS (Brown Ridges, &c.) 10-20 1,614 1-53 



Grounds 1 B 1 (Dogger Bank) 10-20 1,541 2-41 



IB 2 (Leman Bank, &c.) 10-20 1,321 1-24 



Northern JD 1 (Long Forties, &c.) 30-40 1,249 1-27 



Grounds [F 1 (Witch Grounds, &c.) 50-100 2,857 401 



Hjort estimates that 29-2 per cent, of the whiting in the 

 North Sea are caught at 10 to 20 fathoms/ and 40-3 per cent, at 

 20 to 30 fathoms. He caught whiting in April 1910 as far south 

 as Vianna in Portugal on a bank at 30 to 40 fathoms in company 

 with soles, large hake, and skate. 



Fluctuations in the Catch 



The landmgs from the North Sea by first-class English 

 vessels on the east coast has varied as follows : 



1908. 1909. 1910. 1911. 1912. 1913. 



11,133 12,089 12,191 11.752 16,773 18,482 



So the commercial statistics, so far as they go, give no 

 indication at all that the species was being ' fished out ' before 

 the war, although it was presumably subject to the same 

 intensity of fishing as plaice, haddock, and other species which 

 have caused anxiety. It spawns for choice at depths between 

 10 and 30 fathoms,^ that is to say in shallower waters than the 

 cod or the haddock, and sometimes in water shallower than the 

 plaice. Are whiting, in fact, less subject to infant mortality 

 than other species ? And what is the reason ? Unfortunately 

 the gaps in our knowledge of their life-history are so considerable 

 that these questions cannot be answered. 



Life-History 

 The Spawning Grounds 



When Mcintosh and Masterman wrote their British Marine 

 Food Fishes the spawning grounds had not been exactly located. 

 Meek now gives them as being located north and west of Britain, 

 in the Irish Sea, English Channel, Bay of Biscay, southward of 



' Depths of Ocean, p. 457. 2 jbjd ^ p 733. 



