150 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



numbers certainly suggest that we may be getting 

 dangerously near to the local extinction of the species. 

 Of course in other parts of the district where the fishing 

 is not so intense the proportion of the marked fish 

 re-captured is not nearly so high. It is interesting to 

 note that in the similar experiments carried on off the 

 East coast of England during the International investiga- 

 tion of the Xorth Sea 40 per cent, of the marked small 

 fish transplanted from inshore to the Dogger Bank were 

 recovered in the same neighbourhood. The total per- 

 centage of the marked fish recovered in the North Sea 

 from all parts of the area was 19 per cent, per annum. 

 In our experiments in the Irish sea the total over the 

 whole area was 23"25 per cent., but in a number of the 

 experiments a full year has not yet elapsed. 



The evidence so far tends to show that the plaice 

 grows about 3 inches in the year, during the summer 

 (May to September), and that a fish 8 inches long in April 

 and weighing | lb. will by September be 11 inches long 

 and will have doubled or trebled its weight with a corre- 

 sponding increase in value — a strong argument for the 

 protection of undersized fish. 



Important information as to the migrations of the 

 fish throughout the district seems forthcoming, but 

 observations during another year at least are desirable 

 before we draw conclusions. In winter they travel into 

 the sheltered estuaries mid bays, and chiefly in a northerly 

 direction. In the summer they move offshore into deeper 

 water, and chiefly in a southerly direction. The cost of 

 these experiments is comparatively slight, and the 

 information gained is most valuable I have no hesitation 

 in recommending to the Committee that the work be 

 continued during 1906 on the same lines as in 1905. 



