CLOSURE OF FORTH, ST ANDREWS, AND ABERDEEN BAYS. 55 



twelve years' duration can it be said to-day that the closure 

 of the areas of the Forth and St Andrews Bay or any other 

 area has been followed by a notable increase in the numbers 

 and in the size of the food-fishes therein ? What evidence 

 have the experimenters produced in regard to the oft-repeated 

 statement that trawling on the same line soon exhausted the 

 stock of fishes ? What has been done — in the opportunity 

 afforded by closure — to increase the valuable forms such as the 

 sole and turbot in Scottish waters ? 



Before answering these, it may conduce to perspicuity if 

 the various steps of the executive are briefly narrated. The 

 areas carefully selected for closure — in 1884 and 1885 — were, 

 from south to north, the Forth, St Andrews Bay, and Aberdeen 

 Bay. The Forth gives the results of closure in a great estuary 

 or inland gulf having a considerable depth of water and various 

 intrinsic sources of food-supply. St Andrews Bay is a typical 

 shallow sandy bay on the east coast, with the estuaries of the 

 Eden and the Tay opening into it. This area is more open to 

 the North Sea than the Forth, and thus the " pulse " of the 

 North Sea is more readily felt. The third, Aberdeen Bay, is 

 wholly different from the others, since its perfectly open sea- 

 board is defined — to the three-mile limit — only by artificial 

 lines running eastward from Girdleness on the one hand and 

 the Cruden Scars on the other, a distance of about 18 miles. 

 It appeared to be important to have an accurate record of the 

 seasonal variations of the food-fishes in Aberdeen Bay — for con- 

 trast and comparison with the two former areas, since the coast 

 is even more exposed to the North Sea than St Andrews Bay. 



The Reporters in the Sixth Annual Report of the Fishery 

 Board (Prof Ewart and the late Sir Jas. Gibson Haitian d and 

 their able assistants, the late Mr Jas. Duncan Matthews and 

 Dr Fulton) fully understood one main function that was to be 

 performed by the trawling experiments of the ' Garland,' viz. 

 "what effect this mode of fishing was likely to have upon the 

 ultimate productiveness of the waters around the coasts of 

 Scotland, and especially in the territorial waters." 



Board itself, whereas they were carefully discussed and mapped out by the 

 Trawling Commission and especially looked after by Lord Dalhousie. 



