of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



227 



Whiting. 



The eggs of the whiting have been reported (in the accompanying list) 

 from February 22nd to July 22nd, a period of five months. 



Dr Fulton gives from early March to the third week of August for the 

 whole East Coast, so that there is a considerable discrepancy. He states 

 that * in the Forth .... all were immature from July to October.' 



His examination of the adults agrees in its conclusions with the distri- 

 bution of pelagic ova in a remarkable manner. As previously stated, 

 he found that spawning cod and haddock were only found outside the 

 territorial waters, but that spawning whiting occurred even as far up the 

 Firth as Stations I. and II. ' Whilst the great majority spawn outside 

 ' the territorial waters, or near the margin, a few quite ripe specimens, both 

 * male and female, are found within the limit, and even pretty far up the 

 ' Firth of Forth.' 



An inspection of the accompanying list will bear this out. Thus, of 

 the two solitary occurrences of eggs in February, both are in the middle 

 Stations (V. and VI.). Daring March, again, there are only a few eggs 

 of whiting, and all but one haul came from the inner stations. In the 

 third week of April great numbers of whiting-eggs are found at Station 

 II. (18th), Station VII. (22nd), Station IX. (22nd), and Station V. 

 (23rd), and their almost simultaneous occurrence at these various districts 

 plainly points to a wide spawning-area. 



Throughout May, the eggs of the poor-cod commence to complicate 

 matters, and also those of the sprat. In the fresh condition there is no 

 possible confusion between the eggs of this latter species and those of 

 the whiting, but they are in some cases, when preserved, quite inseparable. 



Throughout June there is the same general occurrence, but in the whole 

 month there is only one haul (and that only of 1 6 eggs) in an outer Station 

 (IX.). We know from other evidence that the whiting does spawn in the 

 later months, such as June, so that the absence of eggs from the outer 

 stations shows, firstly, that the eggs which were already spawned there 

 have drifted in to the inner stations, and possibly, in part, elsewhere ; 

 and, secondly, that the whiting spawn in the inner stations later in the 

 year than they do at the outer stations. 



It is evident, from consideration of general principles, that in the case 

 of the eggs of one species (constant size) those spawned earlier should be 

 spawned further off-shore ; and there is here distinct evidence that the 

 whiting spawn (in any quantity) first in early April, 8 to 12 miles east 

 of the Isle of May, and by the third week in April, they commence 

 spawning in the inner stations ; and, in the same way, spawning is first 

 completed in the outer stations, so that there is an almost complete 

 absence of whiting's eggs after the second week of May in this area, 

 whereas they occur in abundance (with poor-cod and sprat) in the inner 

 stations throughout June. 



It is thus seen that the whiting, in the extra-territorial waters, spawn 

 along with the cod and haddock in the outer stations, and that later on 

 they spawn in the inner stations in company with poor-cod and sprat. 



The eggs of the whiting spawned in the former district will be sub- 

 jected to the same physical conditions as the accompanying eggs of the 

 haddock and cod, and will probably be drifted in to the inner stations. 

 In mid April the incubation-period of the cod was taken as 14 J days, and 

 for the same temperature that of the whiting should be 12 J days, an 

 ample period for the eggs to arrive well within the Firth before hatching 

 takes place. The temperature in mid-June varied in 1893 from 10*6° C. 

 (Station VIII.) to 14*5° C. (Station IV.), with a mean temperature of 12° C. 



