222 



over 88 per cent, of the whole, while the South coast yields 

 6 per cent, and the Irish Sea only 5 per cent. It is gene- 

 rally believed, however, that these official returns of the 

 Board of Trade are imperfectly collected, and the above 

 figures are to be regarded as minimum values. Accurate 

 returns of the numbers of fish landed at Grimsby in one 

 year alone are furnished by Holt.* For the year ending 

 March, 1894, over 17^ millions of fish were landed at that 

 port. Most of these fish were caught in the North Sea, a 

 small proportion only in Iceland waters. 



We have seen that the Plaice, like other Pleuronectid 

 fishes, is a permanent bottom living fish, has a compara- 

 tively limited distribution, and a range of migration which 

 is relatively small. On account of these habits it is pecu- 

 liarly liable to capture by present means of fishing, and 

 at no stage in its life history from the metamorphosis 

 onwards does it go outside the range of the fisherman's 

 operations. While yet on the nurseries it is caught by 

 the shrimp trawler, on the inshore grounds it has become 

 marketable and is caught in the stake and trawl nets, and 

 in the open seas, when mature, it becomes the prey of the 

 deep sea trawler. In many of these respects it contrasts 

 with the commoner round fishes, such as the herring, cod 

 or mackerel. While it is generally agreed that the supply 

 of the last named fishes is practically inexhaustible, it 

 seems no less clear that the abundance of Plaice and other 

 flat fishes may be very sensibly influenced by the opera- 

 tions of modern fishing, and in fact many arguments point 

 to the conclusion that the flat fisheries on British coasts 

 are declining. The present system of collecting statistics 

 is, however, so incomplete that to make out an absolutely 

 convincing proof of this is difficult, and it is only fair to 



* Holt — An Examination of the present state of the Grimsby Trawl 

 Fishery. Jour. Mar. Biol. Assoc, vol. iii. (N.S.), 1893-5, p. 339. 



