Fishery Board for Scotland. 



Ixxiii 



SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATIONS. 



During the past year the scientific work consisted cruelly in Scientific in- 

 carrying on the trawling experiments required by the recent Act TilwThigEx- 

 of Parliament [Sea Fisheries (Scotland) Amendment Act, 1885], periments. 

 but in addition investigations were made as to the development, 

 artificial hatching, structure, and food of some of the more important 

 useful fishes. 



The bye-law (dated 1st February 1886) made by the Board to 

 prevent beam trawling in the Firth of Forth, St Andrews and 

 Aberdeen Bays, having been confirmed on 5th April following, 

 arrangements were at once made to carry on systematic observa- 

 tions in the three restricted areas. To render this possible, a small 

 steamer was purchased, and provided with a trawl, dredges, and 

 oLber appliances. After preliminary trials, the regular trawling 

 operations were begun on the 16th June, and continued to Novem- 

 ber, when the trawling part of the work had to be suspended for 

 want of funds. 



An account of the trawling operations, accompanied with a num- 

 ber of important statistical tables, will be found in the Appendix 

 (p. 43). 



The 'Garland' trawled periodically over twenty different ' sta- The 'Garland, 

 tions.' Nine of these stations are in the Forth district, five in St 

 Andrews Bay, and six in Aberdeen Bay. The position of the Forth 

 and St Andrews Stations is indicated in the chart (Plate I.), 

 Appendix, page 60, and the number and kinds of fish captured are 

 given in table A, page 61. 



In the absence of previous data, it is not yet possible to arrive 

 at any conclusions as to whether fish are increasing at any of the 

 stations under observation. It is evident that each month of each 

 year will require to be considered separately, and attention paid 

 not only to the numbers of fish taken, but especially to the con- 

 ditions under which they are captured. 



A short account of the trawling stations will be found in the Trawling 

 Appendix (p. 52). stations - 



An important part of the inquiry as to the influence of trawling 

 consisted in arranging to obtain statistics showing the quantities of 

 fish landed from the restricted areas, and the conditions under 

 which they were captured. 



This was an extremely difficult matter to arrange, but since statistics of 

 December last reliable statistics have been obtained for the Firth *™ m t i™R e _ 

 of Forth and St Andrews Bay. It has been found impossible to stricted Area, 

 obtain accurate statistics of Aberdeen Bay, owing to the limited 

 nature of the area closed, and for the same reason the takes of the 

 ' Garland ' have been extremely variable, and the results were not 

 considered of sufficient importance to warrant Aberdeen Bay being 

 further closed for experimental purposes. The fish captured in the 

 Firth of Forth and St Andrews Bay by the net and line fishermen 

 during the months of January, February, and March are given in 

 the Appendix (table C, p. 82). There are no statistics with which 

 these tables can be compared, and it is difficult to estimate accu- 

 rately their importance at present, but attention may be called to 

 k 



