oj the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



7 



overboard as unmarketable, either because they belonged to species 

 that are unsaleable, or, more commonly, because though edible they 

 were too small to be taken to market. 



The number of fishes captured in the various hauls and the pro- 

 portion of the marketable and unmarketable are given in the tables 

 appended to Dr. Fulton's report on the subject. The greater 

 number of the marketable fishes consisted of plaice and haddocks, 

 the former constituting 58 per cent, and the latter 25 per cent, of 

 the total in this class ; the proportion of none of the others reached 

 three per cent. Among the unmarketable fishes, common dabs 

 formed 32 per cent, and haddocks 30 per cent. The total number 

 of turbot obtained was 54, and there were 394 brill, nine halibut, 

 and five soles, and all these were marketable. 40 catfish and 22 

 hake were caught, all of which were marketable. 



The investigations in the Dornoch Firth at the end of March 

 were of interest from the discovery of a shoal of spawning cod on 

 the edge of the rough and rocky ground. Several scores of cod 

 were taken in each haul of the net, the largest number in a four 

 hours' drag being 282. They were all spawning, eggs and milt 

 flowing freely from them, and they were all of large size, the 

 smallest females measuring from 33 to 35 inches and the smallest 

 males from 29 to 30 inches. It was judged that the vessel was 

 operating only on the fringe of the spawning shoal and that the 

 greater bulk of the cod were on the rocky ground. Besides the 

 cod, large numbers of spawning flounders were caught on this 

 ground, where few of this species are obtained except in spring, and 

 also spawning coalfish and plaice, in smaller numbers, and common 

 dabs ; very few haddocks were obtained and none of them were 

 spawning. 



It is probable that this area, lying about three miles from the 

 shore in from 13 to 16 fathoms, is one of the important breeding- 

 grounds for the food fishes in the Moray Firth. 



The experiments made with a small-meshed net fastened around 

 and outside the cod-end of the trawl confirmed the conclusions 

 come to previously, that, contrary to the general opinion of fisher- 

 men, a very large proportion of the small fish, especially round fish, 

 which enter the trawl as it is dragged along the bottom escape 

 alive through the meshes, which appear to be distended by the 

 resistance of the water. 



The Hatching and Rearing of Food-Fishes. 



During last year the hatching of plaice was continued at the 

 Marine Hatchery, Aberdeen, the number of eggs of that species 

 collected from the spawning pond amounting in the season to an 

 aggregate of about 39,600,000. The number of plaice-fry that 

 hatched out and were retained in the hatching apparatus until 

 approaching the post-larval stage was approximately 34,780,000, 

 or 88 per cent., and they were liberated off Aberdeen Bay at various 

 times in March, April, and May. The number was considerably 

 below the total in 1903, when it was estimated that 65,940,000 

 eggs were collected, the fry obtained numbering 53,600,000. The 



