of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 41 



hatcheries which were in operatiou were concerned with lobster culture, 

 the output of lobster fry amounting to 501,000,000; the hatching of 

 marine food fishes appears not to have been undertaken. 



At the Norwegian hatchery at Flodevig, operations are practically con- 

 fined to the cod, of which about 3,500,000,000 fry have been hatched and 

 " planted " in adjacent fjords, the largest output in one year being 

 412,000,000. The annual expenditure, which is partly met by contri- 

 butions from the State and partly by grants from the local Fisbery 

 Society, amounts to about £600 per annum. In England there are two 

 hatcheries for sea fishes, plaice, and flounders, both being under the 

 direction of Professor W. A. Herdman ; one is situated at Piel and the 

 other at Port Erin in the Isle of Man.* 



2. The Sba-Fish Hatchery op the Fishery Board. 



Since 1894 a hatchery for sea fish has been part of the scientific estab- 

 lishment of the Fishery Board, being worked in conjunction with the 

 Marine Laboratory for fishery researches. From the year named until 

 1900 the hatchery was located at Dunbar, since when it has been 

 located at the Bay of Nigg, Aberdeen. A description of the buildings, 

 apparatus, and the methods employed has been given in previous reports 

 of the Board, t and it will sufiice to say here that the adult fishes are 

 obtained from local trawlers ; that they are retained all the year round in 

 a large tidal pond, where they spawn naturally at the proper season, the 

 eggs being collected from the water of the pond and transferred to the 

 hatching apparatus in the hatching-house ; and that the fry are liberated 

 in the sea on the coast of Aberdeenshire. The methods and apparatus 

 employed are the same as those used at the Norwegian cod hatchery, 

 which was taken as the model for the Scottish establishment. Several 

 of the food fishes have been dealt with, but attention has been concentrated 

 from the first on the plaice, a fish which, as many recent researches have 

 .shown, appears to be declining very considerably on the fishing grounds.^ 

 The following is a statement of the number of eggs of the plaice collected 

 and of the output of plaice fry, in each year since the work was begun : — 



Year. Eggs Collected. Fry Liberated. 



1894 27,250,000 26,060,000 



1895 44,035,000 38.613,000 



1896 14,970,000 11,350,000 



1897 30,960,000 24,370,000 



1898 21,500,000 19,200,000 



1899 18,700,000 16,470,000 



1900 43,290.000 31,305,000 



1901 65,377,000 51,800,000 



1902 72,410,000 55,700,000 



1903 65,940,000 53,600,000 



1904 39,600,000 34,780,000 



1905 40,110,000 24,500,000 



1906 7,486,000 4,406,000 



1907 1,627,000 1,282,000 



* Annual Reports of the Lancashire Sea Fisheries Laboratory ; Annual Reports 

 of the Liverpool Marine Biology Committee. 



t Twelfth Ann. Rep., Part III., p. 196 ; Twenty fourth Ann. Rep., Part III., 



J Vide Annual Report of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries on the Sea 

 Fisheries for the year 1906, pp. 7, 10, &c. ; Report of the Board of Agricidture and 

 Fisheries on the Research Work in relation to the Plaice Fisheries of the North Sea, 

 1908. 



