A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



gadoid fishes, and these spawn there in the early part of the year. Nearly all 

 edible fishes except herring produce spawn which drifts at or near the surface 

 of the sea ; and these drifting eggs are conveyed by the surface currents, due to 

 tidal streams and to the prevailing winds, towards the shallow inshore 

 Lancashire waters. 



There these eggs, having undergone their embryonic development while 

 drifting in the sea, find their way ; and when the metamorphosis of the larva 

 hatching out from the eggs is completed, the little fishes sink to the bottom, 

 and finding a suitable habitat in our shallow water they undergo further 

 growth. During May and June we may find hosts of small pleuronectid 

 fishes in the sand pools on the foreshore, and in the autumn incredible numbers 

 of such may be trawled. They are about i to i inch long when found on 

 the shore in June, and about 2 to 4 inches long when caught in the trawl net 

 in the autumn. They inhabit the shallow waters for the first two or three 

 years of their lives, moving along the coast, principally from south to north, 

 in search of food. When they are three or four years of age they begin to 

 move offshore, and getting into deep water they then begin to produce spawn. 

 Incredible numbers of them are, however, caught during the first year or two of 

 their lives by the shrimp trawlers. Catches of 10,000 or more dabs, plaice, 

 or whiting, have frequently been made in the course of the fishery observation 

 carried out by the Lancashire Sea Fisheries Committee. 



The most abundant fishes of the Lancashire coast are dabs {Pleuronectes 

 limanda), plaice {P. platessa), whiting [Gadus merlangus), soles {Solea vulgaris), 

 solenettes {Solea luted), skate and ray (various species of Kaja, principally 

 R. maculata, R. clavata, and R. batis), stingers {Trachinus viperd). Whiting 

 are rather capricious as regards presence and abundance in any one locality. 

 Dabs are always abundant, but are most numerous in the colder months. 

 Plaice and soles are most abundant in the autumn. Herring in the form of 

 ' sprats ' are occasionally very abundant. Skate and ray are ubiquitous and 

 nearly always numerous. The above forms are those which we may regard 

 as characteristic of Lancashire waters. 



The shallow sandy-bottomed waters of Lancashire, and the scarcity of 

 rocks and seaweeds, constitute a habitat from which many species of fishes are 

 naturally absent. Rock-loving fishes are therefore not abundant in our 

 district, and their absence may be noted in the following list. Fish-collecting 

 on the coast of Lancashire is a matter to be dealt with by the use of the trawl 

 and line, and nearly all the species I mention have been caught by these 

 methods. 



TELEOSTEANS 



ACANTHOPTERYGH 4. Sea Bream. Pagellm centrodontus, De la 



1. Perch. PercafluviatUis,Uan. _ ^°^^«- 



Common in streams and ponds, ^^''^^ ^°°''"°" '" "°"** Lancashire waters. 



5. Norway Haddock. Sehastes mrvtgicus (Ascan.) 



2. * Ruff. Acertna vulgaris (Belon.) ^here is a specimen of this fish in the Liver- 

 Used to be common m streams runnmg into pool Public Museum recorded from the mouth of 



the Mersey. ^^^ Mersey estuary in 187 1. It is, however, a 



3. Bass. Labrax lupus (Lac.) northern form, and uncommon in the Irish Sea. 

 Common in Lancashire waters, especially in 6. Short-spined Cottus or Bull-head. Cottus 



Morecambe Bay. It is caught chiefly by lines scorp'tus, Linn. 



or draft nets during the siunmer months. This is the commonest Cottus. It is taken 



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