108 TEANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



flesh, for instance, that can be raised on a suitable Lancashire 

 foreshore is greater by far than the quantity of beef or mutton 

 that could possibly be raised on the same area of the best 

 grazing land. 



This is the general nature of the North-west inshore fishing 

 grounds, but some of the sub-regions differ from the above 

 description. Luce Bay is such a nursery ground (in certain 

 places), but it also contains large numbers of big plaice, up to 

 over 60 cms. in length. Something in the nature of the Bay, 

 and its water and food supply, may be associated with this 

 remarkable distribution, but the main factor is preservation. 

 The Bay has, for a long time, been closed against trawling by 

 the Scottish Fishery Board, and the amount of other fishing 

 (by " gill-nets ") that goes on is insufficient to deplete the area 

 of the large fish. 



The fishing grounds of North Wales, lying just off the 

 coasts of Carnarvon and Anglesey, between Great Orme's Head 

 and Point Lynus (Conway Bay, Beaumaris Bay, Red Wharf 

 Bay), are not nurseries to the same extent as are the grounds 

 mentioned above. Here medium and big plaice are caught, 

 principally during the months of October to January. There are 

 nurseries in Carnarvon and Cardigan Bays, but not to the same 

 extent as off the Cumberland, Lancashire, and Cheshire coasts. 

 Medium to big plaice may be caught in the great Welsh Bays 

 at the beginning of the year and in the summer and autumn 

 months. 



What we may conveniently call the " offshore grounds " 

 are situated outside the twenty-fathom contour line on the 

 English side and between this and the Isle of Man ; also out 

 from the same depths in " Channel Course "* and St. George's 

 Channel, and between Cumberland, Isle of Man, and the South 

 Coast of Scotland. Plaice occur over most of this region, but 



* " Channel Course " is the sea in the neighbourhood of the general track 

 followed by vessels entering Liverpool from St. George's Channel. 



