216 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



TRAWLING OBSERVATIONS AND RESULTS. 

 By J as. Johnstone, B.Sc. 



1.— Trawling Observations in Luce Bay. 



By the kind permission of the Fishery Board for 

 Scotland the " John Fell " was enabled to trawl for three 

 days during October and November, 1904, in Luce Bay. 

 The primary object of these fishing operations was to 

 procure a stock of mature plaice for the Piel Hatchery for 

 breeding purposes, and for the demonstrations given in 

 the fishermen's classes to be held at Piel in the spring of 

 1905. Advantage was, however, taken of the facilities 

 thus afforded to continue the observations previously 

 made on the distribution of the plaice within the waters 

 of Luce Bay. 



Luce Bay was at one time a very lucrative trawling 

 ground, but in 1889 the Herring Fishery (Scotland) Act 

 gave the Board powers to prohibit trawling within 

 Scottish territorial waters, and also in a number of 

 scheduled areas of which the Bay was one. A bye-law 

 was, therefore, made which closed all the area within a 

 line drawn from a point near Port William on the eastern 

 side of the Bay to another point near Drummore on the 

 AVest. The whole Bay is not, therefore, closed, but the 

 valuable plaice grounds lie in-shore from this line and the 

 Bay has been since 1890, for all practical purposes, a 

 mare clausum. It is only very occasionally that trawl 

 fishing is legally carried on there. 



