Ixiv 



Thirty-second Annual Befort 



direct experimental proof is lacking, and indeed could hardly be 

 obtained, that the grounds to the south are recruited by supplies of 

 floating eggs and larval plaice carried from the Moray Firth by the 

 prevailing current. 



Another point on which the marking experiments throw light is the 

 intensity of fishing operations. There is no reason to suppose that 

 the marked plaice are either more liable or less liable to capture than 

 those which exist beside them in their natural condition on the grounds. 

 The proportion of the marked fish recaptured thus oi?ers an indication 

 of the proportion of the natural stock which is within a given time 

 time removed, and this proportion, as above indicated, is larger than 

 might be expected. 



The Influence of Marine Currents. 



As is indicated above, the part taken by sea currents in distributing 

 the floating eggs and larv;3e. of the food-fishes may have an important 

 bearing on fishery problems. It influences the migrations of the adult 

 fishes as well as the movement of the eggs and young fishes from one 

 portion of the coast to another, and also the movements of the floating 

 organisms upon which young fishes of almost all species, and certain 

 fishes at all stages of their life, as the herring, principally subsist. 

 An investigation was therefore undertaken, and is now proceeding, 

 to ascertain as completely as possible the course, direction, and rate of 

 the currents along our East Coast and throughout the North Sea 

 generally. For this purpose a large number of sealed bottles, suitably 

 weighted and containing numbered cards tor identification, have been 

 thrown into the sea from the Goldseeker " at various places both near 

 the coast and at a distance from it. Of a total of 5096 drift-bottles of 

 the kind which have been put into the sea to the end of 1913, 943, or 

 18'5 per cent., have been returned, partly from the British coast and 

 largely from the Continent, more especially from Norway, some of them 

 having been found as far north as the Lofoten Isles and the North Cape, 

 and even on the Murman coast in Barents Sea. 



Trawling for Herrings. 



During last year, and particularly in autumn, when the commercial 

 fishing is chiefly prosecuted, an extensive investigation was made on 

 the question of trawling for herrings. A detailed report on the subject 

 is in course of completion, but it may be stated here that the enquiry 

 comprised (1) special researches by means of the Board's steamer, the 

 " Goldseeker " ; (2) observations by trained men on commercial 

 trawlers engaged in trawling for herrings ; (3) observations with 

 experimental drift-nets of different mesh on a herring drifter ; (4) 

 observations at the markets where the trawled herrings were landed ; 

 (5) observations of a more scientific character at the Marine Laboratory. 



A number of selected Fishery Officers, after receiving preliminary 

 training at the Marine Laboratory, accompanied herring-trawlers in 

 September and October, which they were enabled to do by the courtesy 

 of the owners at Aberdeen. Sixteen voyages of this kind were made, 

 during which 526 hauls of the trawl were taken. The total quantity 

 of marketable fishes caught in these voyages was 5247 cwts., of 



