8 



Part III. — Fifteenth Annual Report 



vestigations as to the results of the closure of certain waters to 

 beam-trawl fishing, nor to extend the inquiries which have yielded 

 valuable results in the inshore waters to the breeding grounds 

 situated at some distance from the shore, and which form the 

 principal source of fish supply to the territorial seas. 



One of the most important results of the Board's scientific work 

 has been to show that the food fishes which form the basis of the 

 fishing industry • — such as plaice, cod, haddock, ling, turbot, etc.,— do 

 not spawn on the east coast within the three-mile limit, as was pre- 

 viously supposed. On the other hand it is not known at what 

 distances from the shore or in what precise localities the spawning 

 areas are chiefly situated. It would obviously be of great advan- 

 tage to obtain accurate information on this subject and to be able 

 to map out on a chart the regions where the various species of 

 the food fishes spawn. 



Were the ' Garland ' replaced by an efficient sea-going vessel of 

 the type recommended, by the Parliamentary Committee on sea 

 fisheries in 1893, or w T ere the Board placed in possession of such a 

 vessel properly equipped for the work, it would be possible to 

 conduct these and allied investigations in the offshore waters at 

 very little additional cost. It may be stated that the Lancashire 

 Sea Fisheries Committee possess a steam vessel, much superior to 

 the ' Garland ' ; and which is exclusively employed in the fishery 

 work of the Committee, both for police purposes and for scientific 

 investigations; and that the Government of the Cape of Good 

 Hope are having a high-class trawler built specially equipped for 

 conducting scientific investigations in connection with the Cape 

 fisheries. 



The Influence of Beam Trawling. 



p. 17. The results of the trawling experiments carried on in 1896, 



together with the tables embodying the details of the observations, 

 are given in a special Eeport. As stated last year, the trawling 

 experiments have for the present been suspended in the Firth of 

 Forth and St Andrews Bay, where they were most systematically 

 and regularly conducted for a number of years. The general 

 results, so far as concerns the most important subject of the experi- 

 ments in these waters, the increase or decrease in the abundance of 

 the food-fishes since beam trawling was prohibited, showed that 

 while the relative numbers of most of the round-fishes, such as cod 

 and haddock, and the unimportant fiat-fishes, the dabs, had slightly 

 increased, there was a decrease among the more valuable fiat-fishes, 

 the plaice and lemon sole ; a circumstance probably due to the 

 increased trawling in the offshore areas where these fishes spawn. 



During the year 1896, the trawling operations of the 'Garland' 

 were for the most part confined to the Moray Firth and the Clyde. 

 For the reasons previously adverted to, the examination of the 

 stations in each of these areas has been necessarily imperfect, and 

 sufficient information has not yet been acquired to enable any 

 definite statement to be made respecting the results of the closure, 

 or the position and extent of breeding grounds and nurseries of 

 immature fish within their limits. 



