76 FISHES AND FISHERIES OF THE IRISH SEA. 



$th Haul July igth, 1894. Net down i hour 30 minutes : 



In net of j-inch 

 mesh 



23 soles 

 131 plaice 

 19 dabs 

 i skate 



Size from 8 to 14^ inches. 



In net of 4|-inch 

 mesh 



6 soles 

 610 plaice 

 323 dabs 



4 gurnets 

 87 young" ray 



i whiting 



;>A11 small, from 4 to 8 inches. 



1031 

 This haul shows a saving of 1,031 young fish by the use of the larger mesh. 



Many other similar experimental drags with the trawl confirm the above results. In all 

 the trials a trawl beam of only 25 feet in length was used. When the large number of boats 

 employed in trawling is considered, and it is remembered that in the day each of these makes 

 several hauls of much longer duration than those made in our trials, it must bring home the 

 fact that enormous quantities of undersized fish might be saved by the use of a larger mesh. 



Such use of a larger size of mesh, would, in all probability, be one of the first effects of 

 any legislation which would prohibit the sale of fish under certain specified sizes. 



A large number of experimental and observational or statistical hauls of this nature have 

 been made, from the steamer, under our direction, and many hundreds of sheets of such records 

 have been accumulated ; but we are convinced that, in order to carry out such work adequately 

 and satisfactorily, a special steamer for scientific and statistical work should be employed in 

 our area of the Irish Sea.* 



Besides the administrative and other work just mentioned, the steamer is at times 

 employed in taking out representatives of the different rateable authorities in order that they 

 may witness the results of shrimp-trawling and fish-trawling with nets of different sized meshes, 

 and also in taking round the district, for the purposes of inquiry, etc., members of the Fisheries 

 Committee and others connected with the work. 



4. THE EFFECTS OF THE COMMITTEE'S WORK. 



It is impossible to gauge with accuracy what effect the bye-laws have yet had upon the 

 fisheries, but we give here three tables showing the values and quantities of sea-fish landed in 

 the district during the last ten years. It should, however, be pointed out that statistics are 

 not taken at all the places where fish are landed ; if they were, the quantity and value would 

 necessarily be in excess of that shown by the tables. 



* See the scheme suggested in the Lancashire Sea Fisheries Laboratory Report for 1900, p. 24. 



