76 FISHES AND FISHERIES OF THE IRISH SEA. 
5th Haul—July 19th, 1894. Net down 1 hour 30 minutes :— 
23 soles 
131 plaice 
19 dabs Size from 8 to 144 inches. 
1 skate 
In net of 7-inch 
mesh 
Wiss 
6 soles 
610 plaice 
323 dabs 
LO GERGE PRs A UEncts All small, from 4 to 8 inches. 
mesh 87 young ray 
1 whiting 
1031 
This haul shows a saving of 1,031 young fish by the use of the larger mesh. 
Many other similar experimental drags with the trawl confirm the above results. In all 
the trials a trawl beam of only 25 feet in length was used. When the large number of boats 
employed in trawling is considered, and it is remembered that in the day each of these makes 
several hauls of much longer duration than those made in our trials, it must bring home the 
fact that enormous quantities of undersized fish might be saved by the use of a larger mesh. 
Such use of a larger size of mesh, would, in all probability, be one of the first effects of 
any legislation which would prohibit the sale of fish under certain specified sizes. 
A large number of experimental and observational or statistical hauls of this nature have 
been made, from the steamer, under our direction, and many hundreds of sheets of such records 
have been accumulated ; but we are convinced that, in order to carry out such work adequately 
and satisfactorily, a special steamer for scientific and statistical work should be employed in 
our area of the Irish Sea.* 
Besides the administrative and other work just mentioned, the steamer is at times 
employed in taking out representatives of the different rateable authorities in order that they 
may witness the results of shrimp-trawling and fish-trawling with nets of different sized meshes, 
and also in taking round the district, for the purposes of inquiry, etc., members of the Fisheries 
Committee and others connected with the work. 
4. THE EFFEcTS OF THE CoMMITTEE’s Work. 
It is impossible to gauge with accuracy what effect the bye-laws have yet had upon the 
fisheries, but we give here three tables showing the values and quantities of sea-fish landed in 
the district during the last ten years. It should, however, be pointed out that statistics are 
not taken at all the places where fish are landed; if they were, the quantity and value would 
necessarily be in excess of that shown by the tables. 
* See the scheme suggested in the Lancashire Sea Fisheries Laboratory Report for 1900, p. 24. 
