348 transactions liverpool biological society. 



" Report from the Hon. Director for the year 1904-5. 

 (Drawn up June, 1905.) 



" Last year, I considered that I was able to give a 

 satisfactory report to the Sea-fish Hatchery Committee 

 when I recorded the production and liberation of about a 

 million young plaice as the result of the first complete 

 year of working with the necessary equipment. This 

 year I am able to report that over five millions of young 

 plaice have been set free in Manx waters. This grati- 

 fying result is due primarily to the considerable increase 

 in our stock of spawners, effected partly by the kind 

 co-operation of the Lancashire and Western Sea-Fisheries 

 Joint Committee, and partly by our own fishing operations 

 off Port Erin. The notable advance is due also in part 

 to improvement in the hatching mechanism and to 

 increased experience and skill on the part of our curator 

 (Mr. Chadwick) and his assistant (Mr. T. jN". Cregeen), 

 whereby some wastage that occurred in the previous year 

 has been wholly avoided, and the inevitable loss in 

 working very greatly reduced. It is hoped that our stock 

 of spawners will be still further added to during the 

 present summer, and that the output next year will be 

 correspondingly increased. 



" A good deal of detail that was printed last year for 

 the information of the Hatchery Committee need not be 

 repeated. The condition and continued success of the 

 Aquarium has been very satisfactory. 



" The stock of adult plaice which furnished the eggs 

 hatched during the past season consisted of (1) 99 out 

 of the 105 fish with which the season of 1904 was begun ; 

 (2) 110 fish brought from Luce Bay by the s.s. " John 

 Fell," on 19th November, 1904; and (3) 118 fish caught 

 in two trammel nets, efficiently worked by the assistant 



