28 FISHES AND FISHERIES OF THE IRISH SEA. 



Here are a few hauls which show this remarkable state of affairs : 



Sept. 25th, 1893, off Blackpool, 14,892 small fish and 3 quarts of Shrimps. 



Dec. 28th, 1893, ,, 20,889 , 22^ ,, ,, 



Nov. 2nd, 1894, ,, 10,810 ,, > 1} ,', 



Oct. 3ist, 1895, ,, 12,695 . 3 



Dec. i8th, 1895, ,, 19,800 ,, ,, 10 



Jan. 2ist, 1896, ,, 18,536 ,, ,, 18 



Feb. 6th, 1901, ,, 13^61 ,, ,, 13 



Mar. i9th, 1901, 5,378 ,, ,, 4^ 



May 2oth, 1901, ,, 2,430 ,, ,, only a few shrimps 



These hauls were taken with the shrimp trawl, and the haul lasted in each case 

 from 40 to 60 minutes. The fish were all edible species of the most important kinds, 

 comprising soles, plaice, dabs, cod, haddock, and whiting. The ground off Blackpool is 

 an area of the territorial water measuring over 3 miles in length, and containing about 1 1 square 

 miles, extending from the shore to a depth of 5 fathoms, which has been closed against 

 trawling for the last 10 years. The hauls quoted above, and many others in our statistics, 

 show that young fish congregate there in enormous quantities, and there can be no doubt 

 of the value to the neighbouring fishing grounds of this sanctuary as the habitat of a reserve 

 stock of young fish. 



Similar hauls made in the rest of the Lancashire " nursery" grounds, where shrimping 

 takes place freely, such as Heysham to the north and Burbo Bank, off the Mersey (see 

 Fig. 7), to the south, show similar results, although the total numbers of young fish 

 taken are not so great. Here are a few samples : 



Heysham, August 4, 1892, 1,114 small nsn tinc l 7 quarts of shrimps. 



,, July 10, 1893, 1,212 ,, 3 ,, 



July n, 1894, 3,998 ,, 4 



,, Mar. 23, 1896, 1,260 ,, i- ,, 



Burbo Bank, July 27, 1892, 5,638 ,, 2 ,, 



,, Sept. 27, 1893, 11,032 32 



Aug. 21, 1894, 5,672 ,,' 15 



,, Aug. 23, 1898, 5,765 ,, ^13 



In the last quoted haul 562 of the young fish were soles. We have reason to 

 think that the number of young soles on the Blackpool closed ground has kept steadily 

 increasing of late years. 



Our experimental hauls have shown us over and over again that the shank net 

 is much less destructive to young fish than the shrimp trawl, while catching quite as 

 many shrimps. In comparative hauls that were made on the Blackpool ground on December 

 28, 1893, the shrimp trawl took 22^ quarts of shrimps and 20,889 undersized fish, while 

 two shank nets took 21 i quarts of shrimps and 8,929 fish, thus saving 11,960 young fish 

 with a loss of only one quart of shrimps. Mr. Dawson has devised a modification of the 

 shank frame, which consists in having the bottom of the net attached to a bar set about 

 three inches above the ground, the result being that as the shrimps spring upwards when 

 disturbed they clear the bar and so enter the net, while the fish, which remain at a lower 

 level, escape underneath. In the experiments which have been made on the Lancashire 

 coast, this bar shank net gives good results, but it has not been adopted commercially. 



