124 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



it was closed against trawling by the Fishing Board for 

 Scotland. Permission was courteously given by that 

 Board for our Fisheries Steamer to trawl in the Bay. It 

 was late in the year for such in-shore waters, when we 

 made our visit, yet a good number of mature Plaice were 

 secured in a single day's trawling. The weather was 

 favourable for the passage to Piel. After a run of nearly 

 nine hours the fish were landed in good condition and 

 placed in our tanks. The fact that we have to go to closed 

 waters for our spawning fish, is a good proof that protected 

 grounds, in which all trawling is prohibited, are undoubtedly 

 a benefit to the fisheries. They are the means of preserving 

 the maturing fish, and so of ensuring that at least some 

 fish will be left to spawn. With no protection, and the 

 improved methods for catching fish that are now employed, 

 the adult fish, especially of sedentary species like the 

 Plaice, would soon be as scarce as they now are in the 

 Irish Sea between Lancashire and the Isle of Man, where 

 they were formerly plentiful. 



During the hatching season of 1901 we had upwards of 

 250 flounders in the tanks. The ratio of sexes, as far as 

 could be judged by size, was three females to two males. 

 The males of flat fishes are, as a rule, smaller than the 

 females ; but there is no certain guide from external appear- 

 ances unless the fish are ready to shed the reproductive 

 elements. The females are then recognisable by the very 

 swollen abdomen. Consequently there are usually a num- 

 ber of fish amongst the stock that do not reproduce owing 

 to immaturity. These cannot be detected when the fish 

 are collected. The fish were collected in Barrow Channel 

 by Mr. Wright, as in former years, and kept in tanks till 

 the spawning season was over, when they were set free, 



