_ 7 — B. HELIvAND-HANSEN 



Distribution of Trawl-hours per Area, according to Season 



As previously stated these tables refer to haddock and not to cod, for which 

 latter we have exhaustive statements as the result of a far larger number of 

 trawl-hours. The first thing we see from them is that our haddock-material is 

 anything but evenly distributed with regard to time. If we take the yearly totals 

 we will find that there are returns from 481 trawl-hours for 1904, while from 1903 

 we have merely returns from 213 hours. And when we come to the monthly 

 totals we will notice that there is no material for February and next to none for 

 November. On the other hand in the month of July there are returns for 250 

 trawl-hours, of which not less than 164 hours were due to 1904. March, June and 

 July have been the months when trawling was principally carried on. 



The material is further very unevenly distributed with regard to area. To 

 the five southernmost and westernmost areas G. H. K. L,. M. nearly 83 per cent of 

 the whole number of hours are due; while hardly as much as 17 per cent can be 

 claimed by the others. There are not more than a few hours altogether for the 

 Norse Rent (A), or for the coastal water strip along Scotland and North Eng- 

 land (F). The northern North Sea plateati and the Gut (B and C), where the depth 

 is over 50 fathoms and the area round the Little Fisherbank (J) are not credited 

 with more than 30 hours for the whole period: whereas there are ten times as 

 many hours from the small area (G) between Flamborough Head and the Dogger 

 Bank. The material is thus unevenly distributed with regard to both locality and 

 time; it has been collected chiefly in the southerly portion of theNorth 

 Sea from depths iinder 30 fathoms and chiefly during the summer. 



We have previously mentioned that our material consists of returns giving 

 the total number of individuals in the catches, the lengths of the different 

 individuals and to some extent their weights. Our treatise will accordingly come 

 tinder three heads : number, size and weight. I must here beg leave to preface my 

 remarks with some general statements concerning this kind of statistical research. 



