34 Part 117, —Twenty-first Annual Report 
highest catch of marketable fishes being 2404, chiefly haddocks and 
plaice. 
The marketable fishes obtained in the nine drags are as follows, with 
the average per hour's fishing :— 
| | 
Cod. |Codling.| Haddock. | Whiting. | Gurnard.} Saithe. | Hake. | Ling. | 
| 
(1) No. 5 287 9,227 160 | 884 2 2 2 
Av.| 0-1 8-0 | 252:8 44 | 4-9 0:03 | 0:03 | 0:03 
Plaice. Brill, | Common | Lemon | Witch. | Thornbaek. | 
(2) No.| 7,908 27 1,558 721 )5| We 228 54 
Av.| 2165 0-8 42°7 20s Gee 14 
The aggregate number taken, including a mackerel and a grey skate, 
was 20,412, or an average per hour’s fishing of 559-2, a very consider- 
able proportion. The bulk of the catch consisted of plaice and 
haddocks, but if the unmarketable fishes had been included, it is 
probable that the first place, so far as numbers are concerned, would 
have been taken by the common dab. Particulars were kept of the 
selections made on board of the haddocks and plaice according to their 
sizes, and the particulars are of interest. Both were divided into 
four classes, firsts or large, seconds or medium, and thirds or small, and 
fourths or extra small, a division which has come into vogue owing to 
the rise in the price of fish. The fourth class, and perhaps the smaller 
of the third, were previously not brought to market. The numbers 
of each are as follows :— 
Plaice. Haddock. 
Istria, MRM Oe 458 168 
2nd, : - = : 2,089 60 
Shed fu! (> REL ie ONET 8,142 
Athise (i eS: «1p AOS 857 
7,903 9.00% 
Thus sixty-seven per cent. of the plaice and ninety-seven per cent. of 
the haddocks were small. Medium haddocks were especially scarce 
and less abundant than the large ones. Whitings were remarkably 
few in numbers, only 160 having been procured of marketable size in 
the nine hauls, while gurnards, on the other hand, as compared with 
Aberdeen Bay and the inshore places on the northern side of the Firth, 
were abundant. 
The catches, as will be observed from the Tables, began to diminish 
in productiveness after the third haul. The first three drags yielded 
10,855 marketable fishes in thirteen hours and ten minutes’ trawling ; 
the next three drags yielded 6835 marketable fishes in thirteen hours 
and thirty minutes’ trawling. The eighth haul produced only 937, and 
the ninth 1131, marketable fishes. This reduction in the numbers 
might be regarded as an instance of the temporary clearing away of the 
bottom fishes on a limited ground by the repeated action of the trawl ; 
and to some extent this may be the case, for the total of 20,412 isa 
