12 
SEA FISH HATCHING AT PIEL. 
By Anprew Scort, A.L.S. 
In the operations carried on during the fish hatching 
season of 1903, the eggs of plaice (Pleuronectes platessa) 
and flounder (PJ. flesus) were again dealt with. At the 
beginning of the year there were 100 mature plaice and 
200 flounders in the tanks. The plaice, as in former 
years, were brought from the closed waters of Luce Bay 
by the fisheries steamer, and the flounders were collected 
in Barrow Channel by Mr. Wright. The fish, on the 
whole, were not so large as those used in the hatchery work 
of 1902, but from the increase of numbers, and by main- 
taining a good circulation of water, we were able to 
improve upon the results then obtained. 
Under the present system we have probably nearly 
reached the maximum number of fish that can be accom- 
modated with safety. Further development, as we 
pointed out in last year’s Report, can only be secured by 
an addition to our present resources. The fish hatchery 
at Bay of Nigg, and the hatchery at Port Erin have both 
open air ponds which are of immense use in all hatching 
work, and must be considered as an essential to further 
progress. 
The first fertilised eggs were collected and placed in 
the hatching boxes on March 9th, and the last on May 7th, 
so that the spawning season with us extended over a 
period of two months, or about two weeks less than in the 
previous year. During the spawning season nearly 
seventeen millions of eggs were collected and incubated 
and those eggs produced close on fifteen millions of fry 
which were set free as before near the centre of More- 
cambe Bay. ‘The periods of incubation of the plaice and 
flounder eggs were practically the same as last year, from 
