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Part IIP — .Eleventh Annual Report 



These experiments concerning the migratory movements of the plaice 

 bring out the following general results : — (1) That plaice tend to remain 

 within the inshore waters during the period of immaturity; (2) That 

 while they may travel 20 miles in about a year or so, their movement is, 

 as a rule, slow ; (3) That in the areas investigated their movement is in a 

 definite direction, namely, inwards along the south shore of the Firth of 

 Forth in a westerly direction, then outwards and eastwards along the 

 northern shore, and that this general direction is continued round St Andrews 

 Bay towards the north. These results are in agreement with other 

 investigations of the 'Garland' into the distribution of immature plaice, 



Diagram showing the movement of plaice within St Andrews Bay and the Firth of 

 Forth, a indicates the general direction of the movement ; b represents a 

 probable movement within the Firth of Forth ; and c, the movement offshore to 

 the spawning grounds. 



and the position of the spawning grounds, and they help to complete our 

 knowledge of the cycle of life and movement of this important flat-fish. 

 The spawning grounds are situated off the mouth of the Forth and St 

 Andrews Bay, the buoyant ova are floated inwards, and the immature fish 

 circulate in the shallower waters in the manner described, passing out to 

 the spawning grounds on approaching maturity : those from the Firth of 

 Forth, apparently chiefly by the channel between the Isle of May and 

 the Coast of Fife, and those from St Andrews Bay, re-inforced to some 

 extent by those from the Firth of Forth, probably moving out from the 

 neighbourhood of the mouth of the Tay in the direction of the Bell Rock. 



