52 



Part III. — Twenty -first Annual Report 



turbot and brill being predaceous and living to a large extent on these 

 clupeoids, as well as on the sand-eel, 



I give in the following Table the particulars for the two places ; 

 in the Moray Firth the hauls at different localities are combined. 





Aberdeen Bay. 



Moray Firth. 



No. of 

 Hauls. 



Tur- 

 bot. 



Brill. 



Her- 

 rings. 



Sprats. 



No. of 

 Hauls. 



Tur- 

 bot. 



Brill. 



Her- 

 rings. 



Sprats. 



January, 



2 





1 







11 



2 



27 



9 



1 



February, . 



1 











18 



3 



19 



83 



12 



March, 



3 











19 



1 



29 



3 



22 



April, . 























May, . 



5 





3 



6 





18 



17 



25 



4 







11 



1 



28 



5 



2* 



18 



2 



7 





• + 



July, . 



7 



9 



n 

 t 



99 



If 



14 



4 



1 



11 



29 



August, 













14 





6 







September, . 



5 



5 



1 







10 



2 



11 







October, 



0 



1 



3 







12 











November, . 



17 



17 



3 







32 





106 



17 





December, . 



17 



1 



1 



10 





36 



27 



233 



141 





* One sand-eel. f Three sand-eels. % Sand-eels. 



The number of brill and turbot caught, mostly at Burghead Bay, in 

 November, December, and January was considerable ; in the two former 

 months sprats were also known to be on the ground. The hauls, 

 indeed, in these months are of much interest as showing the extent to 

 which the presence of herrings and sprats causes predaceous fishes to 

 assemble to prey upon them. In thirteen hauls in December, for 

 example, while haddocks and whitings were almost absent, 383 large 

 cod, 406 codlings, mostly large and all marketable, and 233 anglers were 

 taken on the ground frequented by the herrings and sprats, the averages 

 per haul being 29"31 and 18 — far above the usual. The herrings and 

 sprats included in the Table were all caught in the ordinary trawl-net, 

 but in the small-meshed net very large numbers were taken, and this 

 sometimes happened at times when none were got in the ordinary net. 

 The use of a net of this kind may thus throw light upon changes in the 

 abundance of many fishes at a certain place and time, the cause of 

 which might otherwise remain obscure or be erroneously interpreted. It 

 some instances, as at Sinclair Bay in June, it was found to be sand-eels 

 which were attractive to the brill. 



None of the turbot taken, and only one of the brill, was so small as 

 to be unmarketable, showing that the young of these species under 

 about nine inches are not usually found within the limits of th depths 

 stated when the trawling occurred. 



No brill were found at the Dog Hole, on the Fisher Bank, or on the 

 north-eastern grounds, and no turbot were got in the nine hauls on the 

 Fisher Bank. Two, however, were taken in a haul at the Dog Hole, 

 12| miles off Aberdeen, in seventy fathoms, on 5th November; one 



