COUNCIL — JULI 1905 — APPEND. E 94 
with sufficient definiteness during the course of the year, it would be advisable 
to call in the assistance of reliable practical fishermen, in order to have these 
experiments carried out on special offshore grounds, as, for example, the Doggerbank: 
The distribution of the plaice is, in many respects unfortunately, the central 
object of the international investigations in the North Sea. The ordinary trawling 
experiments, as already mentioned, are not able to give a complete account of this 
distribution even on the open fishing-grounds. Much more is this the case for 
the rough grounds not suited to trawling. The extent of the rough grounds in the 
North Sea, though but imperfectly known, is certainly considerable (see Appendix K 
of the General Report, p. 28), and, to judge from the Swedish experiments reported 
on above, we may believe, that these grounds play an important part in maintain- 
ing the species of plaice in the North Sea. It is therefore of interest to ascertain, 
by similar experiments to the Swedish, how far this is the case, and it is hoped, 
that these experiments will be carried out in the ensuing period of the international 
investigations. 
