52 



mature sprats begin to shoal and are abundant enough to 

 provide the material for a fishery. They are probably to be 

 found all along the coast, wherever suitable gear may be used, 

 but the only fishery is that prosecuted at Morecambe during 

 the period October-March. The fish are mature ones about to 

 spawai. Just before spawning they disperse and the fishery 

 comes to an end. 



The Cod. 



Cod are found over all the region and generally at all 

 periods of the year, but there are local fisheries where the fish 

 is more abundant than elsewhere. About March fair catches 

 are made off the coast of Cumberland and even further South, 

 and about the same time there is a fishery off the West Coast 

 of Isle of Man. In both cases the migration is a spawning 

 one and the fish are full-roed ones. At the best, however, the 

 cod fisheries in the Irish Sea are not of very much importance. 

 The fish is a northern one, and this is near its southern limit 

 of range. 



There are, of course, other migratory species of less 

 importance — thus, whiting move about in much the same way 

 as the cod. Large numbers of whiting, cod, and other species 

 are to be found in the early stages on the nursery grounds 

 during the summer and back-end. Carfish {Belone) come in 

 from the South during the summer and the long, rough dab 

 {Drejxmo'psetta) comes down from the North in the early spring. 

 The sole is, to some extent, a migrant, having its place of 

 greatest abundance to the south of our area. Some species 

 of ray are also periodically migratory. 



Long-Period Fhictnations. 



Two species (at all events), the herring and haddock, are 

 very capricious in their movements. The Welsh and Manx 

 herring shoals are constant in their appearances and disappear- 

 ances, but there have been other herring fisheries wliich come 



