4 Fishery Board for Scotland. 
The second series of Tables (pp. 30-64) are based on a smaller 
number of voyages, in regard to which is received, by the kindness 
of the owners and captains, full information as to the place of 
fishing and the number of hours spent in actual trawling. It is on 
this information that the Board depends for its knowledge of the 
variations in the average catch on each particular area, from season 
to season and from year to year. 
In the year 1912 the Board received such information from 9755 
voyages, or over 85 per cent. of the whole, leaving 1701 voyages 
whose place of fishing is only approximately ascertained, and for 
which the time spent in fishing is unknown. But out of these 9755 
voyages, in 1368 cases the vessel fished on more areas than one in 
the North Sea, and in 162 cases the vessel fished both within and 
without the North Sea. There are left, accordingly, 8225 voyages 
(or about 72 per cent. of all those included in the Board’s general 
statistics) which yield us full information as to the catch per unit of 
time on some one particular ground. Accordingly, for these 8225 
vessels the detailed Tables give the following information :— 
5. For each area into which the North Sea and the waters 
adjacent to our western coasts are divided for statistical 
purposes (areas covering one degree of latitude and two 
degrees of longitude), there are shown (a) the total number 
of vessels known to have fished in that area, month by 
month; (b) the number of days during which they were 
absent from port; (¢) the number of hours actually spent in 
trawling. 
6. The total catch and total landings of these vessels have not 
been printed in full, as was done in former years; but, 
reducing these data to averages, there is shown, as 
formerly, for each month and for each area, (a) the average 
catch, per 100 hours’ fishing, of each kind and class of fish, 
and (}) the average earnings for the same unit of time. 
7. Lastly, there is shown for each area, the mean monthly per- 
centage of cod in the total catch of cod and codling, and of 
small haddock and small plaice in the total catch of those 
fishes. 
Dealing firstly with the main body of statistics, there is shown, 
briefly, in the following Table (I.), the total quantities of trawled 
fish landed in 1912 by Aberdeen trawlers from the principal fishing- 
erounds. 
| TABLE. 
