COUNCIL — SEPT. 1910 - APPEND. D — 56 — 



Second Sitting: Friday, 23rd September 1910, 10 a.m. 



Chairman: Prof. D'Arct Thompson. 



Present: Members of the Council and experts. 



As guests: Dr. Hugh Smith and M. Fabre Domergde, Inspecteur des Pêches maritimes de France. 



Tlie second of Dr. Hoek's recommendations was considered. Dr. Hoek sug- 

 gested that it was desirable to take up tlie habits and natural history of the 

 migratory fishes, especially the sardine, auchovy and mackerel, for closer study. 

 As he himself had been engaged for many years on the study of such forms as 

 the sardine and anchovy, he ventured to offer himself for this reportership. 



Mr. Archer pointed out that the question of altering the work of the reporters 

 or of appointing new reporters was closely bound up with the question of expense, 

 and it would perhaps be advisable to delay making definite resolutions until all 

 the reporters had been heard. 



The chairman then suggested that the discussion of Dr. Hoek's proposal 

 should be postponed. 



c. Dr. Masterman gave a brief summary of his report for the year 1909—10 

 on the later stages of the pleuronectids. As a point of particular impor- 

 tance he showed how the spawning regions of the plaice in the North Sea 

 had been determined in three different ways, and how these three different 

 ways corroborated one another. As recommendations for the work of next 

 year he put forward the following; a concentration of the investigations on 

 the Southern North Sea with especial regard to 3 points, (a.) age and sex of 

 of the flat-fishes, (b.) drift-bottle experiments to determine the direction and 

 strength of the currents and (c.) the study of the plankton eggs according to 

 the methods employed in Germany and Holland. 



The ensuing discussion was taken part in by Heincke, Ehrenbaum, Redeke, 

 Fulton and Johansen. In the opinion of Ehrenbaum and Redeke the most 

 southerly of the areas marked out by Masterman had already been suffici- 

 ently investigated by the Germans and Dutch, and it would be of more 

 interest and importance to concentrate attention on the more northerly 

 areas. 



Mr. Archer asked the opinion of the meeting as to the time or months 

 when such investigations could most usefully be made and the suggestion 

 was made that March, April and May would be the best months for the 

 area off Flamborough Head and January, February and March for the 

 southern areas. 



