SEA-FISHERIES LABORATORY. 277 



Gadus aeglefinus, Linn. — Haddock. 



There has been a marked scarcity of this fish in the 

 Irish Sea during the past five or six years. No haddock 

 eggs were obtained in 1911 and 1912. Only two were 

 seen in 1913. They were from a haul taken five miles 

 1S T .W. from Peel, Isle of Man, on May 7th. The investi- 

 gations carried on in 1914 give no indication that there 

 will be an early recovery of this fishery. A migration of 

 the adults into the Irish Sea, however, may take place 

 quite unexpectedly at any time. Herdman and Dawson, 

 in the Lancashire Sea-Fisheries Memoir No. II, "Fish 

 and Fisheries of the Irish Sea," page 47, state that the 

 value of the Irish Sea fishery for haddock in 1900 was 

 £35,000. The only eggs observed during 1914 were 

 obtained from plankton collected in Port Erin Bay on 

 May 12th and 18th. The haul on May 12th contained two 

 eggs, and that on the 18th one only. 



Gadus merlangus, Linn. — Whiting. 



The eggs of the whiting appeared in the Bay plankton 

 on March 4th, and were generally distributed there and 

 in the open area outside during March and April. The 

 open sea collections taken in connection with the 

 !l Intensive Study " investigations usually contained much 

 larger numbers of eggs than those taken in the Bay. It 

 was estimated that fully eight thousand were present in a 

 haul from Station III on March 3rd. The collections 

 taken in the central area of the Irish Sea in April showed 

 the eggs to be fairly plentiful everywhere. A haul taken 

 on April 14th, 8 miles N. £ W. from Liverpool North- 

 West Lightship, was estimated to contain 4,900 whiting 

 eggs. 



