CONSIDERATION OF INDIVIDUAL FISH 91 



30 and 23 cm. The extra large haddock come in great quantities 

 from Iceland and the Faroe grounds, whence come the largest fish 

 of all. The largest haddock recorded from Faroe was 82 cm., or 

 33 in. ; from Iceland 89 cm. or just about a yard long. Off the 

 east coast of Scotland and in the middle North Sea grounds, haddock 

 of this extra large class are rare, but a certain number come from 

 the Shetlands, from the western grounds, and from the south-eastern 

 grounds. The large haddock are found in greatest numbers off the 

 north-west coast of Scotland and also towards the Danish coast. 

 Small haddock are more plentiful in the middle regions of the 

 North Sea, but the statistics are defective because quantities of 

 them are thrown away by the trawlers and not brought into port. 

 The extra small haddock chiefly come from the grounds nearer 

 Aberdeen. There are four trade categories at the English ports, 

 i.e. large, medium, small and very small. The average size varies 

 a little at the different ports. The usual range for very small is 

 from 15 to 29 cm., and for small from 24 to 40 cm. 



Unfortunately the method of recording the locality of capture 

 differs in England and Scotland, and naturally this does not 

 facilitate the study of the complete statistics of an individual fish. 

 In Scotland the system of statistical investigation now in general 

 use was devised by Fulton in 1891. As summarised in his paper it 

 consists essentially in recording for each vessel landing (i) the 

 place where the fish were captured ; (2) the duration or extent of 

 the fishing operations by which they were taken ; (3) the date ; 

 (4) the particulars of the kinds and quantities of fish landed. 



These statistics were published by the Fishery Board for Scotland 

 for the Aberdeen trawling fleet up to February, 1903, since which 

 time they have been taken over by the International Committee. 

 The delimitation of the regions or areas under which the statistics 

 are summarised is most important ; for without such dehmitation 

 the statistics would be valueless. To divide the North Sea into 

 four or five large areas would be quite misleading. The areas chosen 

 by Fulton were the squares formed on the chart by the intersection 

 of each degree of latitude with every second degree of longitude, 

 each of the areas, which was numbered, having an area of 3600 sq. 

 miles. This system was convenient, but has one disadvantage ; 

 it takes no account of the depths. 



The system adopted by the English Board for the division of the 

 North Sea has already been described. The areas are mapped 

 according to the depth of water, and some of the areas were further 

 subdivided and numbered. These areas vary in size from 62 to 

 28,106 sq. miles, and are also of very irregular and diverse shape. 

 Much has been said for and against each system. 



