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invertebrates, e.g., by a heavy trawl, has or has 

 not an injurious effect upon certain fishes. 

 3rd. When the time comes, as it probably will, 

 when it will be cheaper and surer to farm fish 

 than to hunt them, when fish are bred, reared, 

 and fed up for market, then fish food will have 

 to be accurately ascertained and carefully culti- 

 vated, and all such statistics as those we are now 

 accumulating will be of value and receive their 

 proper application. 



The Distribution of Immature and other Fish. 



As already stated in the introduction, we have gone 

 carefully over Mr. Dawson's statistics of the fish caught 

 in the district during the year, and we now give some of 

 the more important points which can be made out regard- 

 ing the distribution of immature and other fish. 



Owing to the steamer having been largely engaged in 

 police work during the past year, there has not been so 

 much opportunity for trawling over the areas for which 

 we have given statistics in former reports, but what has 

 been done confirms, to a great extent, the figures already 

 given. 



A continuation of the experimental trawlings on the 

 Blackpool closed ground seems to show that the number 

 of small fish that frequent this nursery is steadily increas- 

 ing, and thus fully justifies the closing of this area 

 against trawling, and we have no doubt whatever that if 

 some other parts of the district were dealt with similarly 

 the result would be equally satisfactory. Let us take, 

 for example, the Mersey. From the middle of October 

 till about the end of December, there are great numbers 

 of young fish in the river between the Dingle and 

 Garston, chiefly Plaice and Dab, 2;^ inches and upwards, 



