326 BRITISH FISHERIES 



Successfully to deal, by artificial culture, with 

 such areas as the North Sea or the Irish Sea would 

 be quite impossible. This is evident when we 

 come to consider the scale on which fish-cultural 

 operations would have to be conducted. Hensen ^ 

 and Apstein found that in the North Sea in 1895 

 there were over 3 1 billions of plaice eggs and embryos^ 

 and this estimate was most probably under the 

 mark. Even in such a small area as Loch 

 Fyne, Williamson found 483 millions of plaice eggs 

 to have been present during one season.^ Even if 

 we try to consider the number of mature plaice 

 landed in England from the fishing grounds, and 

 attempt to form an estimate of the loss of fry 

 which has, presumably, to be made good, the 

 impossibility of hatching operations becomes very 

 evident. Holt ^ estimated that over 17 millions 

 of mature female plaice were landed at Grimsby 

 alone in one year (ending March 1894). It is 

 quite impossible to determine what is the total 

 number of such fish landed from the North Sea 

 fishing grounds by all the fishing boats working 

 there, and still more, what is the annual reduction 

 of this fish population which has to be made good 

 by taking advantage of the immunity which the 

 hatchery confers on the fish and eggs dealt with. 

 But the figures I have quoted above will suffice 



1 Wissensch. Meeresunt., Kiel Komm., Bd. ii. Heft 2, p. 71, 1897. 



2 Report, Fishery Board for Scotland, for 1898, pt. iii. p. 79. 



3 Journ. Mar. Biol. Ass., vol. iv. No. 4, p. 414, 1897. 



