FROM YACHTS AND LARGE FISHING BOATS 297 



From investigations carried on by the Scotch Fishery Board, 

 it seems that when the trawl is only down for from an hour to 

 an hour and a half the percentage of dead fish is small ; but 

 that when the net is kept down for six hours or seven hours 

 nearly all the more delicate fish, which will include the smallest 

 of those caught, if not killed outright, are so injured that they 

 die in the course of a few hours. 



Soles are very scarce on the east coast of Scotland, and for 

 the purpose of obtaining some for fishcultural purposes, the 

 Garland made the journey already described to the Yorkshire 

 coast. Of the soles caught many died. Some were placed in 

 St. Andrews Bay, and others in a tidal pond, but of these a 

 large number subsequently died. At the next attempt a Grimsby 

 trawler caught a large number of soles off the coast of Holland 

 and endeavoured to keep them alive in tubs;, but out of 

 several hundred only twelve were living when the English 

 coast was sighted, and these perished before they could be 

 landed. 



Later on the Lancashire Sea Fisheries Committee agreed 

 to allow their steamer to trawl for soles off the Lancashire coast, 

 for the use of the hatchery. The trawl was only dragged for 

 short periods, with the result that the soles were vigorous when 

 brought on deck, and there was no difficulty in preserving them 

 alive and transporting them from Fleetwood to Dunbar by rail. 

 After some difficulties in connection with the carriers had been 

 overcome, forty-two out of forty-seven soles were brought alive 

 and in good condition to Dunbar. 



The largest number of small flat fish is probably caught 

 in the very small meshed shrimp trawls which are worked in 

 most of our larger estuaries. A report was made on this 

 subject some time ago by the Marine Biological Association. 

 It appears that the number of small flat fish taken in the 

 course of a day by the shrimp trawlers is enormous. Of these, 



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