FISHES AND FISHERIES OF THE 



IRISH SEA. 



I. INTRODUCTION. 



The list of Fishes of the Irish Sea upon which this Memoir is founded, was 

 commenced by one of us (W. A. H.) some 15 years ago, in connection with the work of the 

 Liverpool Marine Biology Committee ; and a first rough list, giving the scientific and the 

 English names of all the fishes then known to inhabit the district, was printed as an 

 appendix to the first "Lancashire Sea-Fisheries Laboratory Report" in 1892, and was 

 re-published, with some additions, in the "British Association Report" for 1896. A 

 manuscript laboratory list was then started, and has been added to from year to year. 

 The help of our Fisheries Assistants, Mr. Andrew Scott and Mr. James Johnstone, B.Sc., 

 and of Mr. H. C. Chadwick, at Port Erin, and of Mr. R. L. Ascroft, at Lytham, in adding 

 to the list, are gratefully acknowledged. 



But the mere list, with remarks upon distribution and life-history, however desirable 

 trom the scientific point of view, would have had comparatively little value from the 

 " Fisheries " side. Consequently the Zoologist proposed to his colleague the Fisheries 

 Expert (R. A. D.) to join in the production of this memoir, by adding notes on the importance, 

 seasons, methods, fluctuations, &c., of the fishing industries to the accounts of those fishes 

 of the district which are of economic importance. To this Herdman has added the 

 INTRODUCTION, and the short account of the physical features and of the distribution of 

 living things in the Irish Sea, while Dawson gives a concluding chapter on the constitution 

 and administrative work of the Lancashire and Western Sea Fisheries District. 



We are indebted to several friends for kind assistance in compiling the records of 

 occurrence. Mr. A. O. Walker, F.L.S., while resident in Chester and at Colwyn Bay, 

 paid close attention for many years to the movements of fish and other animals in the 

 estuary of the Dee, and along the north coast of Wales, including the catches in a fish 

 weir on the shore at Rhos, near Llandrillo. He has kindly supplied us with various records 

 taken from his notebooks from 1859 onwards. Mr. J. A. Clubb, M.Sc., of the Liverpool 

 Free Public Museum, has, with the sanction of the Director, copied from the stockbooks 

 the records of marine fishes found locally, and acquired by the Museum since 1857. These 

 amount to 26 species, most of which are fairly common, although a few are rare forms. These 

 fishes were identified, we believe, by Mr. T. J. Moore, Corr. M.Z.S., who was Curator of the 

 Museum from 1851 to 1892. Professor P. J. White, of Bangor, has kindly supplied us 

 with a list of the fishes he has observed in the Menai Straits, and with notes upon the 



