SEA-FISHERIES LABORATORY. 101 



statistical returns. We cannot tell, from the published 

 figures, where precisely the fish were caught; what were 

 the powers of capture employed in catching them; nor 

 what were the sizes and condition of the fish. 



I think it would be much better if the present system 

 were supplemented by paying a certain number of masters 

 of sailing trawlers for making accurate diaries of the 

 results of their fishing voyages. I would refer here to a 

 paper of Miss B,. M. Lee* on the discussion of such 

 records made by the masters of several fishing vessels 

 working from Lowestoft. The methods employed in this 

 Report are well worth adopting for local use; and it 

 appears to me that if we had a record of the fishing 

 operations and results of (say) 40 sailing trawlers working 

 from Fleetwood, Hoylake and Douglas, a very approxi- 

 mate picture of the movements and relative abundance 

 (which is what we want to know, not the quantities 

 of fish landed) of plaice and soles in the Eastern 

 half of the Irish Sea, and in the Welsh Bays. These 

 vessels work over all this area, obviously they go 

 only where fish are to be obtained, and obviously we 

 should be utilising the accumulated experience of the 

 masters — an experience which surely is of the greatest 

 possible value^ in the consideration of fish problems. 

 If, in addition to such records, the system of measure- 

 ments of sample catches already applied were extended, 

 we should be in possession of data of great service in the 

 discussion of fishery regulations. Not only so, but it 

 might be possible to trace the connection of the move- 

 ments and abundance of plaice and soles (with other fish, 

 of course) in relation to the hydrographical conditions in 

 the Irish Sea — connections which are even now suggested, 



* Keport on the Lowestoft sailing trawler Records, 1903-1906. 

 International Investigations, Mar. Biol. Assocn., Rept. II, Pt. II, 1904-5, 

 pp. 89-112, (1909). 



