MARINE PISCICULTURE 305 



the territorial waters had been closed, but also 

 extensive areas lying outside these, such as the 

 Firth of Clyde and Moray Firth. Nevertheless, 

 statistics showed a continued falling off in the 

 supplies of flat fishes, and the trawling investiga- 

 tions of the Board showed a general diminution 

 in the average abundance within these protected 

 areas. 



The artificial culture of these flat fishes was 

 felt, then, to be a remedy worthy of adoption, 

 and in 1893 the fish-hatching establishment at 

 Dunbar, on the east coast of Scotland, was erected. 1 

 Plaice and cod were the fishes first dealt with, 

 but attempts were made to cultivate turbot and 

 soles. The latter form is very scarce on the east 

 coast of Scotland, and the breeding fishes were 

 obtained from Lancashire waters. The fry pro- 

 duced in the hatchery at Dunbar were first 

 liberated on the fishing grounds in the neighbour- 

 hood of the station; but in 1895 the Board, 

 although convinced of the economic value of 

 the practice, yet thought it would be desirable 

 to prove experimentally whether the planting of 

 large numbers of plaice fry in a portion of the 

 sea did increase the abundance of adult fish on 

 the same area. " It is, however, of importance," 

 they say, " that the economic results of marine 

 pisciculture should be as speedily as possible 



1 There is an excellent account of this establishment in the Board's 

 Report for 1893, pt. iii. p. 196. 



2O 



