THE FISHERY BOARD FOR SCOTLAND 93 



in the abundance of fish which had resulted from 

 the cessation of the method of trawl-fishing. 



The primary object of these experiments, which 

 were made continuously from 1886 till 1901, 

 was to ascertain whether a decided increase in 

 the abundance , of food-fishes resulted from the 

 cessation of commercial fishing. We now know 

 that certain considerations were overlooked which 

 have, to a great extent, invalidated the usefulness 

 of the observations, and further, that the vessel 

 and fishing gear employed were too small for 

 the attainment of trustworthy results. A great 

 number of results, many of decided economic 

 value, and others of purely scientific interest, 

 were obtained, however, during the observational 

 work of the Garland, both on the East Coast 

 stations and elsewhere. To the former class 

 belong the establishment of these, among other 

 facts: (i) the rate at which fishes grow; (2) 

 the size and age at which sexual maturity — that 

 is, the stage at which the fish spawns for the 

 first time in its life — occurs ; (3) the fecundity 

 of fishes, or the number of eggs produced during 

 each season by the mature females of each species ; 

 (4) the migratory movements of fishes ; (5) the 

 time of the year during which spawning occurs 

 in each case ; (6) the distribution of fishes with 

 respect to depth, nature of ground, etc., and 

 at different periods in their life-history ; and 

 (7) the food of fishes. To the purely academic 



