SEA- FISHERIES LABORATORY. 117 



and go. About 1890 and later herrings appeared off the coasts 

 of Lancashire from Morecambe Bay to the Mersey Estuary, 

 and were fished for, by drift-nets, in the latter area as far up as 

 near the entrance to the Manchester Ship Canal. Before that 

 time there was a fishery near the mouth of the Solway, and the 

 " Parton Herrings," taken just north of Whitehaven, were well 

 known and highly esteemed. Since then, and until last year 

 (1921), these fisheries did not exist and only occasional herrings 

 were taken. In the winter of 1921-22 the herrings came back 

 to the Cumberland and Lancashire coasts in fair abundance 

 and were taken at Maryport, at Morecambe, in Morecambe 

 Bay, and all down the coast as far as Great Orme's Head. 

 Thus, there has been a period of about thirty years during 

 which the fish disappeared almost entirely. Before the 'nineties 

 of last century there were other long-period fluctuations — thus 

 somewhere about 1774, herrings were abundant in the estuary 

 of the Dee — and doubtless elsewhere on the Lancashire and 

 Cheshire coasts. In 1840, they appeared in the Mersey. No 

 definite information is, however, now obtainable with regard 

 to these fluctuations. 



Haddock came into Liverpool Bay in great abundance 

 about 1890 to 1895. Since then they have been practically 

 absent, only an occasional specimen being taken. 



(2) The Methods of Investigation. 



The work was begun in 1908 and the methods employed 

 were, briefly, as follows : 



(a) Trawling experiments were made on the various 

 grounds by the L.W.S.F. patrol vessels " John Fell " and 

 " James Fletcher," and also by some of the police cutters. 

 AH the plaice caught were measured immediately after the net 

 was cleared. Lengths were recorded in centimetre groups, 

 all fish which were over n and less than w+1 cms. being 

 recorded as n -5 cms. The principal grounds sampled were 



