38 



Fart III. — Twenty -first Annual Re'port 



of ascertaining in a definite way the productiveness of the fishing 

 grounds in successive years. The principal points emphasised were the 

 necessity of dealing with the catches of the individual vessels, those 

 using different methods of fishing being kept separate and distinct, and 

 the obtaining of particulai's as to the precise locality where the fish were 

 caught. I also furnished tables, illustrated by charts, giving these 

 particulars for a large number of trawlers fishing throughout the year 

 1902, and during part of the year 1891. This system, which I described 

 before the Committee on Ichthyological Reseai-ch in October 1901,* and 

 was commended by them, was also approved by Continental experts, and 

 has been continued since. 



It has, however, been deemed desirable that the detailed information 

 thus acquired, which also throws much light on the distribution and 

 migration of the food fishes on the different grounds, as indicated in the 

 following pages, should be reserved for the use of the International 

 Committee now engaged in fishery research in the North Sea, and I 

 propose here only to indicate a few of the points of contrast between 

 the returns for 1901 and those for 1902. 



The great variation in the relative abundance or distribution of the 

 various food fishes on the grounds in the different parts of the North 

 Sea is again revealed, more particularly when the deep-water areas to 

 the south, south-east, and east of the Shetlands are contrasted with the 

 more southern and eastern areas, where the water is not so deep. As I 

 pointed out last year, this fact may exercise a very considerable influence 

 on the statistics of the fish landed according to the areas which are 

 chiefly frequented by the fishing vessels in any particular year. The 

 circumstance adverted to f that trawlers last year had resumed opera- 

 tions in greater force on the Fisher Bank than for some time past, and 

 that this change in the locality of fishing would particularly affect the 

 catches of flat-fishes, especially plaice, witches, and megrims, has been 

 borne out by the facts. The accompanying Table, which shows the 

 number of landings from the various square-areas (as numbered in the 

 charts referred to) in each month of the year, so far as the particulars 

 were ascertained, indicates how greatly the area of fishing was shifted. 

 Squares XXY. and XXXI. represent the grounds known locally as the 

 Fisher Bank, and it will be seen that while only 34 landings from these 

 two areas were registered in 1901, there were no less than 173 in 1902. 

 On the other hand, the proportion in most of the areas to the south, 

 east, and south-east of the Shetlands was less, viz., XI., XIV., XVIII., 

 and XIX. Thus, in the cases recorded, the quantity of plaice landed 

 from the two areas in question on the Fisher Bank was 128^ cwts. in 

 1901, while last year the quantity was 764| cwts. ; the aggregate from 

 all the trawlers fishing there (only part of whose catches are included) 

 was of course much greater. The effect on the statistics of fish landed 

 of this change will be readily understood from the Tables showing the 

 percentage proportions of flat-fishes in different areas. 



Report of the Committee on Ichthyological Research, pp. viii., 1-8 ; 1901 [Cd. 1312], 

 t Twentieth Ann. Pi,ep., Part III., p. 86. 



[Table. 



