72 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF BLACKPOOL AND DISTRICT 



trawlers at the rate of 80,000 tons, and by the fish merchants 20,000 tons 

 annually, and is produced on the ammonia flooded system by the Fylde Ice and 

 Cold Storage Co., by modern machinery. The ice factory can produce 

 600 tons of ice daily, and has storage capacity for 8,000 tons. The ice is 

 manufactured in 2 cwt. blocks, which are delivered by gravity chutes to the 

 dock sides, and can be crushed at the rate of one ton per minute for delivery 

 to the ships. Other ancillary activities are the manufacture of fish meal and 

 fish oils, engineering, ship-repairing, trawl-net and box-making industries, 

 and provisioning stores. Establishments have also arisen for the curing and 

 preparation of dried salt fish in which there is a large export trade, as well as 

 a school for instruction in navigation and engineering. 



The scene on the fish market from 8-30 a.m. to noon is one of very great 

 interest ; the bewildering auctioning is followed by entertaining feats of skill 

 and rapidity in preparing the flesh of certain fishes for the market, while the 

 adjacent ice factory 1 and the modern steam-trawler, with its wireless, depth- 

 recording, direction-finding and fishing gear equipment, afford excellent 

 illustrations of the application of science to industry. 



The character of the off-shore fishery is given by the amounts of the different 

 kinds of fishes landed. Last year, in the whole of the Lancashire and Western 

 area, which includes Cheshire and North Wales, the following weights of the 

 commoner fish in cwts. were landed : cod (including codling), 182,131 ; 

 haddock, 167,321 ; hake, 141,296; skates and rays, 102,950; herrings, 

 76,455 ; whiting, 44,881 ; plaice, 32,203 ; mackerel, 23,651 ; soles, 8,406 ; 

 dabs, 3,308. An important feature among these figures is the well-known 

 decline in landings of hake, a fish whose value has enhanced greatly in the last 

 20 years and is now the subject of much concern. There seems little doubt 

 that this fish has been greatly reduced on the fishing grounds by over- fishing, 

 and that care is required in the future interests of the fishery in maintaining 

 adequate stocks in the sea. A certain quantity of hake is taken in the Irish 

 Sea, including young ones which feed and grow there, and other fish which 

 enter the sea in summer for feeding, after spawning in deep water ; most of the 

 hake are, however, taken in the period February-March to July-August in the 

 East Atlantic, mainly near the continental edge (about 1 00 fathoms) and often 

 at depths of 150 to 300 fathoms or more. In this period there is a curious 

 tendency for maximum landings about the time of full moon. The decline 

 in recent catches led to the Fleetwood trawler owners combining with the 

 Development Commission to carry out two exploratory voyages with a view 

 to the discovery of new hake-fishing grounds. The results were satisfactory 

 in that good catches of fish were made and new grounds opened up. These 

 grounds have since been successfully fished commercially, but the hake 

 deficiency problem remains as yet unsolved. 2 



Cod, haddock, ling and coalfish are also taken in voyages to the Atlantic near 

 the 100-fathom line from the north-west of Ireland to the north-west of 

 Scotland. Regular visits are made to different regions off Iceland also for cod, 

 haddock, plaice, halibut, lemon soles, catfish and coalfish chiefly. Nearer 



1 The Fylde Ice and Cold Storage Co. cordially invite British Association visitors to inspect 

 the ice factory. 



2 See Buckland Lectures by C. F. Hickling on The Hake and the Hake Fishery, 1935. 



