MARINE FOOD FISHES 135 



wonder that the sole is scarce and that plaice are 

 rapidly diminishing in numbers when one thinks of how 

 the fishing grounds are being constantly scraped by the 

 nets of English, Dutch, French, German, Swedish and 

 Norwegian trawlers. 



As an illustration of the intensity of fishing in the 

 North Sea, I quote from the experiments of the Marine 

 Biological Association, conducted by Professor Garstang. 

 In one year alone fifteen hundred plaice were marked 

 with metal tabs, and released outside the three-mile 

 limit. Within twelve months twenty-one per cent, of 

 these fish were recaptured, and returned to the Lowestoft 

 station of the Association. On the Dogger Bank no less 

 than forty per cent, of marked plaice were recaptured. 

 As these marking experiments were done with the 

 object of tracing the growth and migrations of the 

 plaice, it necessitated the return of the fish itself to 

 the station. We may, therefore, reasonably presume 

 that twenty-one and forty per cent, does not repre- 

 sent the total capture of marked fish, for in some 

 instances the tabs would escape the notice of the 

 fishermen, and in a few cases the fish would not be 

 forwarded. 1 



In consequence of this intensity of fishing, the Dogger 

 Bank now holds no indigenous plaice, but depends for 

 its supply upon the annual migration of fish from the 

 coastal grounds. 



Not only are the larger plaice and other flat fish 

 decimated in this manner, but countless millions of 



