194 INVESTIGATIONS IN MORAY FRITH, 1893 AND 1894. 



comparison with the plaice being interesting in connection 

 with the notion that they and the long-rough dabs supplant 

 the plaice from the facility with which the small breeding 

 individuals escape through the meshes of the trawl, whereas 

 the breeding plaice cannot. The evidence here is not in 

 favour of this view. Haddocks were 10 instead of 31 per 

 haul, and gurnards 13 instead of 22 per haul. The experi- 

 ments therefore resulted in a moderate capture of fishes. 



All the stations showed a reduced number, except IV., 

 where the total was 38 over the previous year, and second 

 in the series of nine years. 



If little success attended the work of the " Garland " on the 

 inner stations, it was this year very different on the outer 

 stations (VII. to XVI.), where the same number of hauls 

 (20) as last year yielded 2,392 more fishes, or a total of 

 7,152, or 357 per haul. Of this number 5,556, or 277 per 

 haul, were saleable, and 1,596, or 79 per haul, unsaleable. 



The foregoing increase was chiefly due to the large 

 numbers of haddocks, which amounted to 3,172, or 158 per 

 haul. These were chiefly captured in October, the total for 

 that month on the ten outer stations being 2,204, and they 

 were saleable fishes of 10 — 14 inches. The contrast with the 

 inner stations is sufficiently marked, for the twelve hauls there 

 in July and October produced a total of only 115 of the same 

 size. The enormous number of haddocks evidently peopling 

 the neighbourhood, and many of which would survive to in- 

 crease the species, shows how capable nature is to maintain the 

 food-fishes in the open sea. The Moray Frith alone could, in 

 all probability, have supplied in October and the subsequent 

 months of 1894 sufficient haddocks for all the fleets from 

 Aberdeen, and that without causing any undue strain on the 

 permanent abundance of the species. They presented them- 

 selves there at that convenient season, yet due advantage was 

 not taken of the opportunity, and the reduced average of the 

 succeeding two years showed that perhaps such opportunities 

 do not occur every year. A favourite argument of some is that 

 while the total for the haddock and other fishes goes on 

 annually increasing, or at any rate maintaining its ground with 



