SEA-E1SIIE1UES LABORATORY. 



233 



Thus, on December 11th, Captain Wignall made what is 

 almost a record haul of these fishes, viz., 18,050 in one 

 drag of an hour's duration. 



It is interesting to compare with the above results 

 those obtained by Mr. Eccles on the Mersey shrimping 

 grounds. I give the average hauls for each month of the 

 same year. Usually two or three hauls were made each 

 month. 



Month. 



July, 1903 



August, 

 September, „ 

 October, „ 



November, „ 

 December, „ 

 January, 1904 

 March, ., 



April, 

 May, 

 June, 



Dabs caught. 



666 



1,159 



699 



233 



305 



711 



31 



195 



90 



35 



23 



Plaice caught. 



51 

 21 



72 

 5 



10 

 274 



23 



10 

 7 

 4 



19 



These 

 hauls were 



made 

 using a 

 shrimp 



trawl 



from the 



sailing 



cutter 

 ' • Rock- 

 light." 



* Plaice were unusually abundant this month. 



The above figures show that on the Mersey shrimping 

 grounds immature plaice are, on the whole, about as 

 abundant throughout most of the year as on the Blackpool 

 ground, and, also, that they are more abundant on the 

 former ground in the middle of the winter. But the 

 figures also show that there is not, by any means, the 

 same disproportion between plaice and dabs. That is, 

 dabs are very much more numerous in proportion to 

 plaice on the Blackpool than on the Mersey grounds. 



In the Fisheries Laboratory Eeport for 1902, I gave 

 a summary of the statistics of immature fishes caught in 

 the shrimp trawling observations during the years 1893- 



