28 FISHES AND FISHERIES OF THE IRISH SEA. 
Here are a few hauls which show this remarkable state of affairs :— 
Sept. 25th, 1893, off Blackpool, 14,892 small fish and 3 quarts of Shrimps. 
Dec. 28th, 1893, 1] 20,889 a spi ezoe alts 35 
Nov. 2nd, 1894, 5 10,810 5 Ara oasis ante nn ” 
Oct. 31st, 1895, 3 12,695 Af 5118 4 5 
Dec. 18th, 1895, 5 19,800 i eto) or 1 
Jan. 21st, 1896, or 18,536 + sew Lo As ” 
Feb, 6th, 1gor, nA 13,161 Si Ap ite} 46 9 
Mar. igth, 1901, 7 5,378 * ae ce, ad 6 
May 20th, 1go1, x 2,430 ‘5 5, Only a few shrimps 
These hauls were taken with the shrimp trawl, and the haul lasted in each case 
from 40 to 60 minutes. The fish were all edible species of the most important kinds, 
comprising soles, plaice, dabs, cod, haddock, and whiting. The ground off Blackpool is 
an area of the territorial water measuring over 3 miles in length, and containing about 11 square 
miles, extending from the shore to a depth of 5 fathoms, which has been closed against 
trawling for the last 10 years. The hauls quoted above, and many others in our statistics, 
show that young fish congregate there in enormous quantities, and there can be no doubt 
of the value to the neighbouring fishing grounds of this sanctuary as the habitat of a reserve 
stock of young fish. 
’ 
Similar hauls made in the rest of the Lancashire ‘‘ nursery” grounds, where shrimping 
takes place freely, such as Heysham to the north and Burbo Bank, off the Mersey (see 
Fig. 7), to the south, show similar results, although the total numbers of young fish 
taken are not so great. Here are a few samples :— 
Heysham, August 4, 1892, 1,114 small fish and 7 quarts of shrimps. 
vs July 10, 1893, 1,212 38 3 PY 
ne July 11, 1894, 3,998 An 4 ne 
a Mar. 23, 1896, 1,260 54 4 ns 
Burbo Bank, July 27, 1892, 5,638 o 2 13 
3 Sept. 27, 1893, 11,032 53 32 a 
aA Aug. 21, 1894, 5,672 An 15 He 
i Aug. 23, 1898, 5,765 53) 13 55 
In the last quoted haul 562 of the young fish were soles. We have reason to 
think that the number of young soles on the Blackpool closed ground has kept steadily 
increasing of late years. 
Our experimental hauls have shown us over and over again that the shank net 
is much less destructive to young fish than the shrimp trawl, while catching quite as 
many shrimps. In comparative hauls that were made on the Blackpool ground on December 
28, 1893, the shrimp trawl took 22} quarts of shrimps and 20,889 undersized fish, while 
two shank nets took 21 quarts of shrimps and 8,g29 fish, thus saving 11,960 young fish 
with a loss of only one quart of shrimps. | Mr. Dawson has devised a modification of the 
shank frame, which consists in having the bottom of the net attached to a bar set about 
three inches above the ground, the result being that as the shrimps spring upwards when 
disturbed they clear the bar and so enter the net, while the fish, which remain at a lower 
level, escape underneath. In the experiments which have been made on the Lancashire 
coast, this bar shank net gives good results, but it has not been adopted commercially. 
