122 



MINUTES OF EVIDENCE TAKEN BEFORE THE 



17 March 1904.] 



Mr. Garstang. 



[Continued. 



Cltairman — continued. 



8 inches, -would grow about 2| to 3 inches in 

 one year ; but the greater part of this growth 

 takes place, almost the entire part of it, between 

 March and October ; in the wmter months they 

 scarcely grow at all. I further wish to sa^"^ that, 

 since it might be objected that these experi- 

 ments are not sufficiently numerous to di-aw 

 conclusions from, we repeated the experiments 

 -again last autumn — September to November 

 —and the same migration was again demon- 

 strated ; so we draw the conclusion that in the 

 southern part of the sea, where the Lowestoft 

 smacks fish, there is a regular migration during 

 the seasons. This is a preliminary conclusion ; 

 it may be modified later on to some extent, bui 

 in general that appears to be the main conclu- 

 sion. This is of great importance, because the 

 small fish grounds for this area are along the 

 Dutch coast, and we have very few small plaice 

 relatively on the English coast — the great abun- 

 dance of small plaice is on the Dutch coast ; and 

 by demonstrating this migration we are able to 

 show that the Dutch coasts are really the nursery 

 for the whole of this area. Then there is a 

 regular migration as the fish get larger. 



2224. Have you any knowledge at all what 

 the Germans have been doing on the eastern 

 grounds ? — I have a general knowledge, because 

 as organising secretary of the Over-fishing 

 Committee in the past they send their reports 

 to me, and a report is being prepared at the 

 present time which will give the results. 



2225. Are the movements of plaice on those 

 gfrounds analogous ? — The migration experi- 

 ments of the Danes and Germans have not 

 reached me in detail, but I know that the}' have 

 made a great number of experiments all down 

 the German and Danish coasts, and I know from 

 some of the captures which our English fisher- 

 men have made, that there must have been 

 very considerable migration ; but I cannot speak 

 as to results; I only know that the work is in 

 progress. 



Marque-ss oiHuntly. 



2226. Have you heard of whether any marked 

 plaice have been caught beyond that area ? — Yes, 

 off the Yorkshire coast, and one even in St 

 Andrew's Bay ; but that was marked further 

 north off the Yorkshire coast itself. 



2227. But the limit of migration is about 

 ] 50 miles ? — It appears to be so. 



Cliairman. 



2228. Can you say at all what proportion of 

 the fish that have been marked have been re- 

 captured ? — Yes, that was a point I wished to 

 state to the Committee. We found, both the 

 Danish investigators and ourseh es, that about 

 30 per cent, of the plaice living on the fishing 

 grounds were caught by fishermen on the grounds 

 in one year. 



2229. That does not show that many escaped ? 

 — Xo, it shows that the fishing is very intense 

 indeed, and it confirms the general view of the 

 results drawn from statistical observations. 

 There is one further point that I should like to 

 communicate, and that is the effect of 



Cha irma n — continued. 



density of population on the rate of 

 gi-owth of the fish. I have here some 

 charts which show the abundance of fish on the 

 different fishing grounds as determined by our 

 own catches. We count and measure every fisii 

 we catch with our otter or beam trawl, and these 

 have been all calculated out into the number of 

 fish caught per hour, with the different sizes, 

 and on these charts the results have been put 

 down for me for the different seasons of the 

 j'ear. {Handing in the same.) On the Horn 

 Reef grounds, which are the chief nursery, of 

 course, under consideration, we obtain an average 

 abundance of plaice in the spring months, that 

 is to say, from April to June, of somethmg like 

 1,300 plaice below 12 inches in length, as com- 

 pared with only two plaice above that limit for 

 one hour's fishing. Later on in the season the 

 abundance decreases down to only a couple of 

 hundred small plaice per hour. 



2230. How many large ? — The number of 

 large is so small that I cannot attach much 

 value to the figures. I have two figures here. 

 The beam trawl reports show four large fish per 

 hour and the otter trawl onlv one ; but those 

 investigations are on slightly different grounds ; 

 it is between only one and four per hour. 



2231. I am not quite sure that I know which 

 grounds these are ; are they round Heligoland 

 or the grounds you were showing on one of the 

 larger charts ? — No ; north of Heligoland, the 

 grounds marked yellow on the chart behind 

 your Lordship. Such a colossal abundance of 

 fish is not found anywhere else in our ex- 

 perience in the whole of the North Sea, 

 and it is only approached very remotely 

 on the Dutch coast, which furnish the 

 nursery for the southern grounds, of course. 

 But we have investigated the rate of growth on 

 those grounds, and find a very distinct difference ; 

 that is to say, where the small fish are verv 

 densely crowded, they grow at a very small rate 

 compared with their rate of growth on other less 

 crowded grounds. The consequence is, that one 

 must bear in mind the possible consequence of 

 interfering with the fishmg as at present carried 

 on on those grounds; that supposing the size 

 limit diminishes the intensity of fishing on the 

 Horn Reef Nurseries, one indirect result \vill be to 

 increase the density of fish there and thereby 

 stdl further to arrest the rate of growth. 



2232. But how do you make that tally with 

 your observations that they migrate ? — These 

 experiments here show that the small plaice below 

 eight inches do not migrate ; the migrations are 

 limited to fish above eight inches ; it is the 

 larger fishes that make the long migrations ; the 

 small fishes remain stationary in situ. 



2233. But your observations have not ex- 

 tended over a whole year ? — Yes, a year and a 

 half. 



2234. Do you think that in a year and a half 

 those small fishes under eight inches do not 

 leave those grounds ? — WTieu the small fish have 

 grown to a larger size then they migrate ; but 

 until they attain the size of abouteight inches they 

 appear not to migrate to any distance from their 

 place of origin. 



*35. But 



