144 ON THE MIGRATIONS AND THE GROWTH OF PLAICE. 



ON THE MIGRATIONS AND THE 

 GROWTH OF PLAICE. 



By Alexander Meek, M.Sc, F.Z.S. 



In 1893 Dr. T. W. Fulton* published the results of experi- 

 ments made under the auspices of the Fishery Board for 

 Scotland with a view to determining the migrations and rate 

 of growth of plaice and other fishes. His conclusions with 

 reference to plaice were : — " i. That plaice tend to remain 

 within the inshore waters during the period of immaturity; 

 2. That while they may travel 20 miles in about a year or so, 

 their movement is as a rule slow ; 3. That in the areas 

 investigated their movement is in a definite direction, namely, 

 inwards along the south shore of the Firth of Forth in a 

 westerly direction, then outwards and eastwards along the 

 northern shore, and that this general direction is continued 

 round St. Andrew's Bay towards the north." During the 

 years 1889 to 1892 the large number of 1,250 plaice were 

 labelled and liberated, and of these 103 were recaptured, or 

 8'2 per cent. The author considered however that this pro- 

 portion was more than probably too small, for the first batch 

 of labels proved to be unsatisfactory. An examination of the 

 details of the experiment bears out the general conclusions. 

 A certain number certainly went to the south, and in the Firth 

 in the opposite or other directions, but the general tendency 

 was to go out of the Firth to the north along the coast of Fife, 

 and from the coast of Fife to the Tay, and to the north of the 

 Tay. Several found their way to the deeper water off the 

 Forth and off the Tay. 



In the same year, 1893, Dr. C. G. Joh. Petersen! made 

 experiments in labelling plaice, and arrived at a method 

 which has been adopted with some modification by subse- 

 quent experimentalists. He marked and liberated about 1,000 



♦ nth Anil. Rop. S.P.B. 

 t Rep. of Danish Biolog. Stat. 1893, 



