MODERN INVESTIGATIONS OF THE SUBJECT 2/ 



and acknowledged. The results obtained by the Survey are 

 very valuable, and will form a most useful basis for attempts to 

 develop the deep-sea fishery on the west coast of Ireland. If 

 the Government had provided means for a similar survey of the 

 east coast of England and the North Sea, the result would have 

 gone very far to settle the question of immature fish which was 

 agitating the industry in that region. As it was, the con- 

 clusions obtained on the cast of Scotland and the west of 

 Ireland could not be applied directly to the east of England, 

 and in consequence the Marine Biological Association en- 

 deavoured, with a single naturalist (Mr. Holt) and without a 

 surveying ship, to do there what was thoroughly done with 

 special Government aid on the west of Ireland. 



In the Tenth Annual Report of the Scottish Fishery Board, 

 published in 1892 and relating to 1891, much space is as usual 

 occupied by the tables of records of the statistical observations 

 made by means of the Garland and otherwise. The trawling 

 experiments of the Garland showed again a considerable 

 decrease in the abundance of food-fishes in the waters of the 

 Firth of Forth and St. Andrews Bay, closed against beam- 

 trawling. Following are extracts from Dr. Fulton's remarks : — 

 "It is clear 'from the analysis of the results of the trawling 

 experiments since 1886, that the prohibition of beam-trawling 

 within the Firth of Forth and St. Andrews Bay has not been 

 followed by the increase in the abundance of flat fishes 

 within these waters which was anticipated." As an explanation 

 it is pointed out that the spawning fish do not spawn in the 

 protected waters, but are on the other hand captured outside by 

 the trawlers ; and that immature fish of the majority of species 

 are to be found in greatest numbers outside the territorial limit 

 up to a distance of ten or twelve miles from shore. In the same 

 Report Dr. Fulton has an interesting paper on the decrease in 

 the supply of fish, and the remedies for it, especially in relation 

 to sea-fish propagation and culture. In 1891 it was decided by 

 the Board that a sea-fish hatchery should be erected and 

 equipped at Dunbar, after the pattern of the hatchery of Captain 

 Dannevig at Flodevig, Arendal, Norway. Dr. Fulton went to 

 examine the arrangements at Flodevig, and the construction of 

 the establishment at Dunbar was commenced. The whole of 

 the expenditure has been met from the ordinary Government 



