130 



Part III. — Tirentieth Annual Report 

 IT. — Flat Fishes and Skates. 



the two pei"iods. The falling off in plaice,* turbot, brill, and lemon soles, 

 may not be due at all to diminished abundance of these fishes on the 

 grounds which they habitvially frequent, but merely to other grounds 

 where they are naturally scarce having been fished over in the second 

 period. No deduction can, therefore, be drawn from them as to the 

 impoverishment of the fishing grounds. The figures showing the gross 

 catches of fish indicate that the aggregate quantity taken has lather 

 diminished than increased, notwithstanding the employment of the 

 otter-trawl in recent years ; but, on the other hand, a vessel which has 

 fished continuously for so long a period as sixteen years is from its age 

 unlikely to fish as well as it used to do. 



I have given the number of landings in each of the years, but it may 

 be said that they could not be well used as a divisor even if the position 

 of the fishing grounds was known, since they represent unequal periods 

 — from one day to ten days. 



The steam-trawler No. II. is a larger boat than No. I., but the 

 statistics of its catches show the same general features. In this case 

 the aggregate for the second period of eight years is somewhat greater 

 than for the first eight years — vii:., 33,522 cwts., as compared with 

 32,102 cwts., and the highest gross catch (with the otter-trawl) was 

 in 1900, the next highest being in 1888 (with the beam-trawl). But 

 the two periods are not equal, since the vessel was engaged in line- 

 fishing for part of the year in 1892 and 1893, and was not landing 



