SEA-FISHERIES LABORATORY. 113 



and dabs in Liverpool Bay. Luce Bay, it will be seen, is far 

 more characteristically a plaice ground than any of the others. 

 Some qualifications, with regard to this statement of 

 distribution, will be found below. 



Seasonal Fisheries. 



The various fisheries are all seasonal ones. 



The great plaice fishery is that off the coasts of Lancashire 

 and Cheshire in the summer and autumn months. Sometime 

 about May or June plaice become abundant just off the mouth 

 of the Ribble Estuary, and then this abundance becomes 

 extended to the grounds North and South. About the begin- 

 ning of August the fish usually appear in great numbers round 

 about the banks off the entrance to the estuaries of the Mersey 

 and Dee. By November these fisheries begin to fail. 



About the same time, or even earlier, plaice become 

 abundant off the coast of North Wales, anywhere between 

 Rhyl and Red Wharf Bay, on the north of Anglesey. This 

 winter fishery ends about December or January, sometimes 

 very abruptly. Then good catches of fairly big plaice may be 

 obtained inshore in Carnarvon and Cardigan Bays. 



After that there follows a period when plaice are relatively 

 very scarce everywhere. Some, of course, are always caught 

 wherever there is trawling, but, in comparison with the well- 

 marked summer and autumn fishery off the Lancashire coast 

 and the equally well-marked North Welsh winter fishery, the 

 plaice are very scarce. About the month of January medium- 

 sized and big fish appear on the banks to the north-east of Isle 

 of Man, and there may be a good deal of trawling there. A 

 little later, however, these grounds may become " as bare as 

 a billiard ball." Following that again the bigger plaice are to 

 to be found on the ground called the " Slaughter," just off the 

 mouth of the Solway. Here they spawn and the shoal disperses. 

 Sometime about March and April, then, large numbers of plaice 



