234 TRANSACTIONS LIVEREO UL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



1902. It will be convenient to quote those figures here 

 for comparison with the records just given. They are : — 



Average Catches oe Plaice and Dabs. 





Peeiod. 



Blackpool Closed 

 Geouxd. 



MEESEY SHEIMriXG 



Geouxd. 





Dabs. 



Plaice. 



Dabs. 



Plaice. 



3rd quarter, 1893-7... 



1932 



1268 



706 



901 



3rd quarter, 1898-1902 



1316 



231 



549 



157 



3rd quarter, 1903 





... 



802 



52 



3rd quarter, 1904 







794 



169 



All the hauls on the Blackpool closed grounds were 

 made by Captain AYignall, and all those quoted for the 

 Mersey grounds by Mr. Eccles. They are all hauls with a 

 shrimp trawl. We have not enough hauls with a shrimp 

 trawl on the Blackpool ground to make reliable com- 

 parisons for the years 1903-4, and it would not do to use 

 Mr. Wright's hauls for this purpose, as the fishing actiou 

 of a shank net is different, with regard to small fishes, 

 from that of a shrimp trawl. But the figures show that 

 plaice have become very much scarcer than dabs on the 

 Blackpool area, and a glance at the table of hauls made 

 by Captain Wignall on that ground during the year June, 

 1903 — June, 1904, will show that this poverty of plaice 

 as compared with dabs still continues. The same change 

 has taken place on the Mersey area, but to a much less 

 marked extent. Plaice there are scarcer than they used 

 to be, but the disproportion between them and dabs is not 

 nearly so great as on the Blackpool ground. 



When the Scottish Fishery Board closed the terri- 



