SEA-FISHERIES LABORATORY. 191 



vailing winds and by exceptional gales, it is evident that 

 its condition in our area of the Irish Sea must be affected 

 somewhat, from time to time, by that of the west coast 

 of Scotland, of the Irish coasts, and of the Atlantic. As 

 the plankton is a very important element of the food of 

 many of our fishes in their younger stages and of some 

 even when full grown, it can scarcely be doubted that a 

 detailed knowledge of the condition and movements of the 

 plankton throughout the year will give us important in- 

 formation as to the distribution of fish. 



For the last ten years the Liverpool Marine Biological 

 Committee have been paying more or less attention to the 

 plankton during their numerous dredging expeditions in 

 the Irish Sea, and in the Eleventh Keport of that Com- 

 mittee, just published, a summary is given of the chief 

 observations which have been made up to the present.* 



A year ago, with the help of Mr. Andrew Scott, I 

 organised a scheme for the weekly collection of surface 

 plankton throughout 1897 at six stations in our district. 

 The localities were Port Erin (I. of Man), New Brighton 

 (near Liverpool), Lytham and mouth of Kibble (coast 

 of Lancashire), Piel (Barrow Channel), and from the 

 Fisheries steamer, at sea, wherever she happened to 

 be. The collections were taken, preserved, and sent to 

 the Laboratory at Liverpool, where they were measured 

 by Mr. Scott and then examined in detail. The scheme 

 was started towards the end of January, and was kept 

 up as regularly as possible — perfect regularity is not 

 possible, first, on account of the weather, and secondly, 

 because the bailiffs who take the gatherings are liable to 



* Prof. M'Intosh had carried out similar investigations for the Scottish 

 Fishery Board in 1888 (see Seventh Ann. Rep. Fish. Bd., Scot., p. 259, 1889). 

 More recently Messrs. Bourne, Bles, Garstang, and others at Plymouth have 

 recorded the variations in the plankton at different times of the year. 



