COMMITTEE B — DECEMBER 1903 (12) 
of fishes liberated on the regular trawling grounds in the vicinity. This would 
throw additional light on a point referred to by Dr. Kyze in one of his communi- 
cations, viz., the extent to which those rough grounds served as a sanctuary for 
flat-fish, — since the length of time during which the fish remained on those rough 
srounds would be indicated by the results of the experiments. 
(6) The time had now arrived when a definite settlement should be made 
as to the modes of tabulating and publishing the results of the trawling experi- 
ments. He had come to the conclusion that if each country was prepared to 
publish the details of its experiments annually, there was no need for the Com- 
mittee to ask the Bureau to publish the same details over again. The minuter 
details were chiefly of value for special investigations as to rate of growth, age, 
etc. The Committee would use the results of these special investigations in due 
course, but for practical purposes (e. g., for comparison with the statistics of com- 
mercial trawlers, characteristics of the trawling grounds, etc.) they would require 
only a condensed statement of the results of the trawling experiments. He therefore 
proposed that the numbers of fish caught of each species should be divided into 
size-groups of 10 cm., in the way that he had treated the results of the compara- 
tive trials. An interval of 10 cm. roughly corresponded with the amount of one 
year’s growth of young plaice, and the selection of this limit would thus facilitate 
the analysis of their records as to the fluctuations in the abundance of fish in 
successive seasons and years. With regard to the marking experiments, he pro- 
posed that the members of the Committee should give him the details of liberation 
for each experiment and also the details of recapture, arranged in chronological 
order. The alternative plan was to wait until each country had published the par- 
tieulars of its own experiments. If that plan was preferred, he would only ask 
that a uniform method of tabulation should be adopted which would simplify the 
subsequent work of putting the various results together. 
(7) It was obviously of great importance for the work of the Committee that 
they should make every provision for studying the normal fluctuations in the 
abundance of fish in the sea, and for tracing these fluctuations to their causes. 
Statistics were quite incapable of showing why fish were more abundant in one 
year than another. By means of their scientific investigations, however, it would 
be possible to trace the relation between fluctuations in abundance and the 
favourable or unfavourable conditions prevailing during successive spawning seasons, 
as had been attempted in a preliminary manner by the Marine Biological Associa- 
tion during the past year for plaice in the English Channel. The conditions were 
