SCIENTIFIC REPORTS. 
I.—TRAWLING INVESTIGATIONS. By Dr. T. Wemyss Futrton, 
F.R.S.E., Superintendent of Scientific Investigations. 
INTRODUCTORY. 
The investigations into the condition of the fishing grounds in certain 
parts of the closed waters, particularly in the Moray Firth and Aberdeen 
Bay, which were begun a few years ago by the employment of commercial 
steam trawlers, were continued last year as frequently as circumstances 
allowed. Trawlings were made in January, March, April, September, 
October, November, and December, the total number of recorded hauls 
in the closed waters amounting to 91, of which 14 were made in Aber- 
deen Bay, 75 in the Moray Firth, and 2 in Sandside Bay, on the north 
coast of Scotland. The localities in the Moray Firth which were most 
thoroughly examined were Burghead Bay and adjoining parts of the 
south coast, the Dornoch Firth, and the grounds off the coast of Caith- 
ness. A few hauls were also taken on Smith Bank, and in the deeper 
parts of the Firth, at the so-called ‘ witch-grounds,” 
The aggregate number of fishes taken in the course of these trawlings, 
so far as they were completely recorded, was 63,525, and of these 44,538 
were taken to market, the remaining 18,987 being thrown overboard, 
either because they belonged to species which are not edible, or, more 
commonly, because they were too small to be marketable. The propor- 
tions of the marketable and unmarketable in each of the recorded hauls 
are given in the Tables appended. 
Records were also made of a number of hauls of a steam trawler which 
fished at the Farées in the month of May, and these are likewise 
included in the Tables. 
One of the chief objects of these trawling investigations is to ascertain 
as far as possible the changes which may occur in the abundance of the 
food and other fishes in the closed waters in different years and at 
different seasons, but observations are also made on the reproduc- 
tion of the fish, their spawning, food, &c., and on various other matters 
connected with their life-history, while at the same time records 
are made of the surface and bottom temperatures of the water on the 
various grounds visited. The employment of commercial vessels for this 
purpose is associated with certain disadvantages; but from the fact that 
the actual trawling work is carried on precisely as it is when fishing for 
market purposes, opportunities are afforded for a number of observations 
bearing on this method of fishing, as, for example, the proportion of the 
marketable and unmarketable fishes which are captured, the relation 
between the size of the fishes taken and the size of the meshes of the 
net, the vitality of the fishes, &c. Collections are also made of the floating 
organisms, or plankton, and of fish eggs and larve, and experiments con- - 
ducted with small-meshed nets with the view of procuring collections of 
fishes of various sizes in connection with the study of their rate of 
growth, distribution, &e, 
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