310 REMARKS ON TRAWLING. 
as bait, together with the closure of the bay, shows that as many 
as sixty or eighty good cod are occasionally caught by a single 
boat, the lines being buoyed and left in the water all night. Some 
fine congers are also occasionally obtained off the east rocks. More- 
over excellent haddocks are procured in the same area early in the 
year, and for two years small haddocks have abounded. Large 
green cod also occasionally leap out of the water in pursuit of their 
prey, and are captured on the beach, while a few pollack are got im 
the salmon-stake nets or on hooks. It would thus appear that 
further experience leads to a modification of the statement in the 
Trawling Report. How far the increase in numbers has been due 
to the closure and the absence of molestation, and how far to the 
fixed and extensive lines and special bait, are open questions. 
The closure of the inshore waters—e. g. St. Andrews Bay—must 
have conduced to the prosperity of the turbot and the brill of that 
neighbourhood, most of the turbot (ranging from 9—11 inches) 
which formerly were captured by the trawlers (sailing and steam) 
now being unmolested, and reaching the outer waters when of some 
size. ‘The salmon stake-nets, however, on the west sands still prove 
destructive to many turbot from 5} inches upwards. ‘These small 
examples of this valuable fish are only used as bait for crab-pots. 
It is true the trawlers sweep the outer waters into which the young 
turbot and brill pass, but the area is wider, and the size of those 
captured considerably larger. 
No fish formed the subject of greater solicitude in the Trawling 
Report than the plaice, both from its wide distribution and its 
great abundance, as well as from the supposed view that this was a 
form specially destroyed by the trawl, which had cleared out of St. 
Andrews Bay, for example, all the full-grown adults, and left only 
the smaller forms. It is apparent, therefore, that during the past 
nine years such inshore waters have had sufficient time for recupera- 
tion—at least to some extent—if these views can be maintained. 
The results of the trawling-work of the “Garland” up to 1892 
have already been dealt with in this connection,* so that other 
observations, and the statistics of fishes captured by the liners in 
this area, have only to be considered. Without at present going 
into detail, it is found that comparatively few full-grown plaice are 
captured in the enclosed waters of St. Andrews Bay. Most of the 
large specimens that have occurred have been either diseased—e. q. 
blind or emaciated—or injured. An enormous number of immature 
or half-grown plaice, however, are reared in the area, and are 
captured by the liners, chiefly with lobworm, their lines being 
buoyed and left in the water for such periods as they please, relays 
* A Brief Sketch of the Scottish Fisheries, 1882-92, p. 6. 
