116 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



a much more abundant fish fauna (in the sense of variety 

 of species) than any part of the Irish Sea. The plaice are 

 mostly large : thus the smallest caught was 35 cms. in 

 length, which represents approximately the largest plaice 

 usually found on most of the Lancashire fishing grounds. 

 Luce Bay contains plaice of nearly all sizes, and the fact 

 that few are recorded in the Tables of less than 15 cm. in 

 length is due merely to the condition that a GJ-inch mesh 

 was employed in the trawl net. When a smaller mesh is 

 used numbers of small plaice may be taken here also. 

 The plaice population near the banks off the North end 

 of the Isle of Man is a migrant one, and fish are only 

 abundant there at the beginning of the year. From 

 Bahama Bank over to the Selker Light Ship, off the 

 coast of Cumberland, is a spawning area, and plaice from 

 Luce Bay, the Sol way, and parts of the sea off the coasts 

 of Lancashire and North Wales resort there to spawn. 

 At other times there are comparatively few fish there; 

 the bottom is as " bare as a billiard ball," the fishermen 

 skippers say, a statement which is, to a certain extent, 

 hyperbolical. 



Duddon Banks. 



The fishing grounds in this area were visited several 

 times in the spring by Captain Wignall, when getting 

 material for study in the fishermen's classes, and plaice 

 were fairly abundant, the modal sizes show little signifi- 

 cant variation during the spring months, but it is clear 

 that the fish were steadily increasing in length. The 

 percentage at and over 8 inches in length (20'5 cms., say) 

 varied from 33 to 39. The curve for May can just be 

 seen to be bi-modal, a condition which indicates change 

 in the fish population either by immigration, emigration, 

 or reduction by intensive fishing. In November Captain 



