— 97 — JOES. SCHMIDT 



usually early and large in-pouring of Atlantic water into the North Sea and the Norweg- 

 ian Channel in the summer of 1905, or how far the hake annually reproduces in large 

 quantities in the Skager Rak can only be determined by future investigations. 



5. The Channel 



It was only in the western part of this region that we found the pelagic fry of Mer- 

 lucciiis, from wliich it may well be concluded that spawning occurs there only and not in 

 the shallower eastern part. The few specimens found (St. 95, 96, 1905, 32, 1906) were 

 taken in May and June and were then quite small, from which we may conclude that 

 they were spawned in April— June. Whether a considerable production of the young takes 

 place in the western part of the Channel cannot be determined from the available data, 

 especially as I have not sought for them systematically there. In the pelagic samples (for 

 May and June 1906) from Plymouth the young of the hake were not included. 



6. Bay of Biscay 



Our investigations in the Bay were made in the first half of May 1906 and in Sep- 

 tember of the same year. At the spring stations the pelagic fry of the hake were found 

 almost everywhere within or near to the 200-iiieter line, both in the northernmost and the 

 southernmost parts, for example in considerable numbers off the boundary between France 

 and Spain. On the other hand we did not meet with them in the autumn, but it should 

 be remarked that we only had very few stations in shallow water and only in the 

 northern part of the Bay. Most of the specimens were no longer quite small in the be- 

 ginning of May, about 2 cm. long, some even 3 cm., from which it appears with certainty 

 that they were spawned in the spring, in April at latest. 



The hake is an extremely common and widely distributed fish in the Bay, and is 

 fished in great quantities by the English, French, German and Spanish trawlers. I saw 

 them also in extremely large numbers in the beginning of May 1906 on the fish market 

 at San Sebastian, where they were by far the most abundant of all the gadoids, so that 

 me to answer very well to the name given it, namely, "the cod of southern and south- 

 western Europe". According to all records it is common in the Mediterranean, where 

 it is stated by Raffaele to be ripe in January, and there is therefore no doubt that it 

 spawns even further to the south in the Atlantic than we have shown, for example, off 

 the coast of Morocco, where it is trawled in large quantities (Pietschmann, I.e. p. 101). 



According to our investigations it is at any rate clear, that the hake spawns 

 everywhere in the Bay of Biscay in quantities, and that the spawning takes 

 place in the spring. How far it may also spawn in summer and autumn as at the Bri- 

 tish Isles, I am unable to say from our too few negative hauls over suitable depths. 



If we summarise the information obtained from our catches of the fry as to the 

 periods at which the hake spawns on the stretch from Spain to the northernmost parts of 

 Great Britain, it seems as if the spawning begins earliest ^ the farthest to the south and 

 latest in the north, whilst the intermediate places (e. g. S. W. Ireland) seem to have an 

 intermediate position ^. 



' This agrees well with Rapfaële's statement that the hake in the Mediterranean is ripe in January. 

 ^ Yet we know with certainty that, for example at Ireland, the fry of the hake are produced late in 

 the year (summer and autumn). 



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