714 FISHES AND FISHERIES OF THE IRISH SEA. 
out their work they cruise about on the fishing grounds, boarding the different fishing vessels 
at sea, and measuring the nets in use, as well as in harbour. They have frequently to visit 
the shell-fish beds, examining the fish taken and the instruments used; also to examine the 
stake nets set along the coast. In cases where infringements of the bye-laws are observed the 
illegal nets or instruments are seized. Another part of the fishery officers’ duty is to make 
hauls on the fishing grounds with different kinds of fish and shrimp nets for the purpose of 
assisting in the observations which are being made in order to discover what size of fish 
different sized meshes will take, and where the young fish congregate. They also collect 
samples, specimens, and tow-nettings for the work of the Scientific Department. These 
samples are sent to be investigated in the Laboratories. The fishery officers have to keep 
diaries of work done, fill up forms of results of hauls, make reports of the results of the 
different fisheries within their divisions, report offences against the bye-laws, and attend and 
give evidence in cases of prosecutions. 
The work done by the steamer is similar to that done by the fishery officers on their 
sailing cutters, with the addition of surprise visits, which have to be made to the fishing 
grounds in all parts of the district ; and with so long a coast line, this entails a great amount 
of steaming, and, owing to the wild nature of some parts of the coast, is at times dangerous 
work. 
The observations taken from the steamer as to results of hauls with different nets, and 
of various meshes, are also on a larger scale—the offshore grounds, Cardigan Bay and other 
distant fishing grounds, being frequently visited for this purpose. As an example of the 
experimental and observational work carried on by the steamer, we give here the results of a 
series of experimental hauls, which we made in 1894, with a trawl provided with two nets, a 
finer outside a coarser, so as to show how under-sized sea-fish can be saved by the use of a 
larger size of mesh, which allows of their escape. 
In these trials a trawl-net of 7-inch mesh was used. This had a second net outside, of 
43-inch mesh, laced round the cod end in such a manner that no fish could enter the outer finer 
net without having first passed through the meshes of the trawl-net of 7-inch mesh. 
1st Haul—Queen’s Channel, Mersey, August 23rd, 1894. :— 
1 sole 
580 plaice 
In net of 7-inch 
-Net down one hour. 
73 dabs 
mesh 2 
9 small ray 
2437 plaice 
1976 dabs 
mesh | — | 
ies These fish passed through the meshes of the net of 
In net of 45-inch ¢ q 5 P 
5 7-inch mesh, and were detained in the net of 
44-inch mesh, and were all undersized. 
The result of this haul shows that under ordinary circumstances in this one short drag 
4,413 small fish would have escaped through the meshes of a trawl-net of 7-inch mesh, but 
would have been retained in a trawl-net of 44-inch mesh. 
