— Cl — JOHS. SCHMIDT 



With regard lo Ireland, IIdi.t (Survey of Fishing Grounds, West Coast of Ireland 

 p. 398—399) states i hai Ihc whliing eggs "were very abundant in the toAV-net in the 

 latter part of Marcli and in April", and lie believes that the whiting spawns mainly in 

 March and April, but even as late as in Juno. 



Our investigations at Ireland, which were made at the end of May and in June, 

 showed that the pelagic fry of the whiting were to be found, at least at several places 

 on the Atlantic coasts of Ireland, in considerable numbers, though these were not so great 

 as further north on the Scottish west coast. The greatest number of whiting fry we have 

 found at Ireland were taken on May 30th 1906 off the mouth of Dingle Bay at St. 59, 

 where up to 90 specimens were captured per 1 hour's haul, most of which were ca. 1 cm. 

 or less in length. For the rest, pelagic whiting fry were found by us at most of the 

 stations in the neighbourhood of the coasts on the W., JSf. and S. of Ireland, but not 

 however in very great numbers. In the middle of June the majority of the specimens 

 found at St. 78, 1905, off the northern part of the west coast, had a length of 2 — 3 cm. 



4. North Sea 



The observations we have which throw light on the occurrence of the pelagic fry of 

 the whiting, were made partly at the end of April and beginning of May, partly in July 

 and finally in August and September. The main result may be summarised as follows: 

 the pelagic fry of the whiting occur in quantities so to speak everywhere 

 in the North Sea, from the most northerly to the most southerly parts, and this is 

 also true for the Skager Kak and Kattegat, in which waters the fry of the whiting are 

 found with the greatest regularity and in the greatest numbers. This appears quite clearly 

 from the Chart of distribution IV, which shows that negative results as regards the whiting 

 fry were obtained at extremely few stations in the North Sea, and the Chart shows 

 likewise that in the North Sea we have reached to the highest number of specimens 

 per half hour's haul, namely 380 (at St. 3, April 27th, 1905, 55° 12' N., 5°53'E.; depth 

 43 meters). 



At almost all our stations in April and May, in the northern and central as well as 

 the most southern parts of the North Sea, eggs were taken, a very large number of which 

 in all probability belonged to the whiting ^ Instead of marking the stations where these 

 eggs but no fry of the whiting were found, as negative on the chart of distribution, I 

 have preferred for the months of April and May to include only the stations where the 

 whiting fry were taken. These stations are thus marked with a simple red spot to dis- 

 tinguish them from the stations in July which are shown with a red sign. I may ex- 

 pressly remark here that this distinction has not been made for other waters than the- 

 North Sea and Skager Rak. 



Whilst referring to the Chart for further details, 1 may remark here that the whiting 

 and in part the cod are distinct from the other Gadus species [G. cec/lefintis, Esmarki 

 and virens) which are common in the North Sea, in that their pelagic young also occur 

 in quantities in the southern shallow parts of this region. Thus, at our stations in the 

 end of April, 1906, on the line from Esbjerg to the Channel we took up to 105 spec- 



' That is to say, eggs which on hatching gave a Gadus larva with yellow pigment. 



