TWENTIETH ANNUAL REPORT 



TO THE EIGHT HONOUEABLE 



LORD BALFOUR of BURLEIGH, 



His Majesty's Secretary fw Scotland. 



Office of The Fishery Board 



FOR vScOTLAND, 



Edinburgh, 7th August. 1902. 



My Lord, 



In continuatiou of our Twentieth Annual Eeport, we 

 have the honour to submit — 



PART III.— SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATIONS. 



GENEEAL STATEMENT. 



This part of the Twentieth Annual Eeport contains an account 

 of the principal scientific investigations conducted by the Board in 

 1901, in connection with the sea fisheries of Scotland, so far as 

 they have been completed. In the course of the year the researches 

 on the life-history and habits of the food-fishes were prosecuted on 

 the same general lines as in previous years, partly at the Marine 

 Laboratory, Bay of Nigg, Alierdeen, partly by means of the Garland, 

 the small steam-yacht which was provided for the trawling 

 experiments, and partly by the utilisation of steam-trawlers fishing 

 from the port of Aberdeen. 



As explained in previous Eeports, the small size of the Garland 

 has hampered and curtailed the investigations, not only on the 

 fishing grounds offshore, from which the greater part of the fish 

 supply is drawn, but also in the Moray Firth and territorial waters. 

 This disadvantage has been met, as far as circumstances permitted, 

 by making use of steam-trawlers on various occasions throughout 

 the year. Scientific work on board vessels engaged in commercial 

 fishing can, however, be conducted only under great disadvantages, 

 and with results much less complete than when done by an efficient 

 vessel properly equipped for the purpose. When the British part 

 of the international scientific investigation of the North Sea has 

 been begun, it will be possible to carry on the w^ork referred to in 

 a thorough and satisfactory manner. 



The hatching operations at the Sea Fish Hatchery, Bay of Nigg, 

 were continued as in previous years, 65,377,000 fertilised eggs of 

 the plaice being collected from the spawning pond, and 51,800,000 



