THE FISHERY BOARD FOR SCOTLAND 93 



in the abundance of fish which had resulted from 

 the cessation of the method of trawl-fishing. 



The primary object of these experiments, which 

 were made continuously from 1886 till 1901, 

 was to ascertain whether a decided increase in 

 the abundance of food-fishes resulted from the 

 cessation of commercial fishing. We now know 

 that certain considerations were overlooked which 

 have, to a great extent, invalidated the usefulness 

 of the observations, and further, that the vessel 

 and fishing gear employed were too small for 

 the attainment of trustworthy results. A great 

 number of results, many of decided economic 

 value, and others of purely scientific interest, 

 were obtained, however, during the observational 

 work of the Garland^ both on the East Coast 

 stations and elsewhere. To the former class 

 belong the establishment of these, among other 

 facts: (i) the rate at which fishes grow; (2) 

 the size and age at which sexual maturity that 

 is, the stage at which the fish spawns for the 

 first time in its life occurs ; (3) the fecundity 

 of fishes, or the number of eggs produced during 

 each season by the mature females of each species ; 

 (4) the migratory movements of fishes ; (5) the 

 time of the year during which spawning occurs 

 in each case ; (6) the distribution of fishes with 

 respect to depth, nature of ground, etc., and 

 at different periods in their life-history ; and 

 (7) the food of fishes. To the purely academic 



