Holt — Survey of Fishing Grounds, West Coast of Ireland. 437 



COAL-FISH — Gadus virens. 



Of 231 Coal-fish caught and measured, 174, or over 70 per cent, were less than 3 

 inches long, 2 were 15 inches, and the remainder above 26 inches long. Probably 

 the limit of maturity occurs somewhere between 15 and 27 inches. The Table shows 

 that all the very smallest specimens occurred in 5 or less than 5 fathoms ; those at 15 

 inches in less than 10 ; whilst the majority, of the larger examples were in 70 fathoms ; 

 and only 1 (perhaps) in less than 5 (10 to 4|), 8 fathoms being otherwise the least depth 

 at which any were captured. 



Neither the eggs nor larval or post-larval stages of this fish have as yet been recog- 

 nised, but the habitat of the young (from 1 inch upwards) is well known. I have 

 reason to suppose that up to about an inch the young are pelagic, but as my identifica- 

 tion of the various very small fish taken in the tow-nets is not yet complete, I have 

 omitted them from this Report. Fulton remarks that it is " known that, at certain parts 

 of the (Scotch) coast young coal-fish swarm around the shores, especially on rocky 

 tangle-covered ground." At St. Andrew's, shoals of little coal-fish, about 1 to 2 inches 

 long, begin to appear amongst the rocky pools in the early summer, and even enter the 

 inner harbour at high water, haunting the Ulva along the sides. ^ This is also the ease 

 on the west coast of Ireland. Besides those accounted for by the shrimp trawl, I have 

 seen numbers about the pier atKillybegs in May, and in the ruined harbour at the west 

 of Achill in June, and at many other parts of the coast. At our anchorage in Killybegs 

 harbour, in June, great numbers of these fish, 2 to 3 inches long, were darting about at 

 the surface in company with young Pollack, eagerly pursuing a shoal of small Sandeels. 

 In the winter, these very young fish appear to desert the extreme margin for slightly 

 deeper water. "We have no evidence of the habitat of the next older stages in Irish 

 waters, but at St. Andrew's, in the summer, large numbers, between 4 and 7 inches 

 long (evidently consisting, partly at least, of the same fish which haunted the rock -pools 

 -in the previous summer) enter the harbour (and also, I believe, the docks at Dundee) 

 with the flood tide, and are largely caught by youthful sportsmen with a mussel bait. 

 Occasionally specimens as large as 10 inches are taken in the harbour; but these are 

 usually to he found, in company with somewhat larger ones, on the rocky tangled- 

 covered ground, in 2 or 3 fathoms, at a short distance from shore, where they consort 

 with the young (Tamlin) cod. On a calm sunny morning I have seen the whole surface 

 of the water in this neighbourhood broken by the small Coal-fish, similar to those found 

 in the harbour, which were rising like trout at some small surface organisms, apparently 

 larval crustaceans. Specimens of about 15 inches are also caught in the autumn at low 

 water, from the ends of the long ridges of rock whick run out into the sea. It would 



^I have also taken Coal-fish, about an inch long, swimming at the surface about two 

 miles from land, in about 7 fathoms, in July. These occurred singly and not in shoals. 



