204 



INVESTIGATIONS IN MORAY FRITH, 1897. 



It is 80 below the average of 1893, and not half what it was the 

 previous year, and no less than 60 below the average for the 

 five years. That this state of matters was not due to absence 

 of the haddocks need hardly be discussed, since, a few months 

 afterwards, a commercial trawler, outside the limit of the Frith, 

 captured 695 per hauP, and when it is remembered that the 

 liners produced a large number from the enclosed area the 

 same year. Yet it may legitimately be advanced that the 

 averages of the haddocks both in the inner and outer stations 

 have shown a downward tendency from 1887 and 1893 respec- 

 tively. Thus, in the first five years of the inner stations the 

 average steadily sunk from 53 to 3, while in the second period 

 (six years) it began at 9 and ended with 3. It is true it rose 

 to 31 in 1893, but thereafter it declined to 10, 8, 2, and 3. 

 Now the work was carried on entirely during the warmer 

 months in the first five years, and in the second period (six 

 years) 13 out of the 66 hauls were in the warmer months. 

 The total hauls for the eleven years were 108, and of these 95 

 were in warmer months, and only 13 in the colder. A survey of 

 the captures in detail according to the months of the two 

 periods gives, however, further information : — 









MORAY FRITH. 













1887-1897. 









Stations I. to VI. 



Stations VI. 



to XVI. 



No. of 





Total 



Average 



No. of 



Total 



Average 



Hauls 





Haddocks 



per Haul 



Hauls 



Haddocks 



per Haul 



1 



Apr. 















__ 



— 



17 



May 



178 



10 



10 



798 



79 



12 



June 



71 



5 



10 



200 



20 



17 



July 



88 



5 



11 



703 



63 



13 



Aug. 



341 



26 



13 



510 



39 



18 



Sept. 



107 



5 



— 



— 



— 



18 



Oct. 



496 



27 



30 



4215 



140 



12 



Nov. 



63 



5 



13 



326 



25 



108 





1344 



12 



87 



6752 



T7 



It is evident that haddocks are less numerous on the inner 

 than on the outer stations, the disparity (12 to 77) being so 

 great as to necessitate different treatment. At the inner 



1 Vide p. 207. 



