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Monthly Reports on the Pishing in the Neighbour- 

 hood of Plymouth. 



By 



W. li. Calderwood, 



Director of the Laboratory of the Marine Biological Association. 



Inteoductoey Statement. 



In these reports I shall not take into consideration the minor 

 methods of fishing which are practised in the locality, such, for 

 instance, as eel spearing, mullet trapping, shrimp and prawn fishing, 

 but shall confine myself to the most important branches, in which 

 the beam trawl, drift and seine nets, and long lines are employed, 

 and I shall also include crab and lobster fishing. 



With reference to the class of boats employed in this neighbour- 

 hood, the trawlers, compared to those of the North Sea, are not of 

 large size. The average boat is about forty-three tons. They are 

 usually rigged as ketches (dandy-rig), but the smaller ones some- 

 times as cutters. The dandy-rig is preferred because with it there 

 is not the very large mainsail and heavy boom of the cutter, and 

 also because, like the yawl, where the mizzen mast is stepped behind 

 instead of before the stern-post, the vessel can be more easily 

 brought under easy canvas in heavy weather. These vessels only 

 carry four men and a boy as crew, and therefore the question of 

 ease in handling becomes one of great importance. Steam trawling 

 is not practised from Plymouth, nor do the sailing trawlers fish in 

 the '^ fleeting^' system common in the North Sea, where many boats 

 belong to one company and remain on the fishing grounds it may 

 be for weeks, while their fish is carried to market by special steamers. 



At Plymouth each trawler is worked independently, goes out to 

 the fishing grounds east of the Eddystone, Mounts Bay, or Bristol 

 Channel, and returns with its catch. The mesh of the trawl-net 

 varies from four inches at the mouth to an inch and a half at the 

 cod end, and therefore can take very small fish. 



The boats using drift-nets for catching herrings, mackerel, and 

 pilchards, are invariably rigged as luggers. They are of various 

 sizes, not exceeding twenty-five tons. The nets for mackerel, set 

 by one boat, may reach two to three miles, but the pilchard and 



NEW SERIES. — VOL. 11, NO. III. 21 



