488 



Pari III. — Eleventh Annual Report 



Mr Holt calculates that they contained over two and a half millions of fish. 

 Uhese small plaice extend along the coast of Holland, Hanover, and 

 Denmark, as far north as the Horn Reef, and from thence to Hantsholm 

 on the coast of Jutland. Large quantities of immature turbot are also 

 caught on the eastern grounds; during June, of 4623 landed, only 786 

 were of mature size, the proportion of immature being 82 per cent. 

 Young lemon soles are not found on these grounds, nor young common 

 soles. The destruction is greatest in the summer months. Similar 

 details are given by Mr Holt in reference to cod, haddock, &c, and 

 he describes a large number of observations he has made into the capture 

 and destruction of immature fish by shrimp-trawling. His observations* 

 show that the great majority of the small fish caught survive when 

 returned to the sea, and that their capture in a shrimp-trawl, in the 

 ordinary course of the industry, is not essentially injurious to any con- 

 siderable proportion of young fish of marketable species. These observa- 

 tions confirm my own on the subject,! and they were instrumental in 

 bringing about a modification of a bye-law of the North-Eastern Sea 

 Fisheries District Committee. Mr Holt also describes the capture of 

 immature fish by other modes of fishing. 



In the same number Mr J. T. Cunningham publishes a paper on the 

 immature-fish question, in which the fishery statistics for England and 

 Wales since 1886 are subjected to careful analysis, and the results of the 

 cognate scientific inquiries are described. Lemon soles, both female and 

 male, were found mature when 7 inches long— thus differing from the 

 specimens caught on the East coast ; and Mr Cunningham is of opinion that 

 no case has been made out for any interference with the capture, landing, 

 or sale of lemon soles. It was also found that female plaice might 

 become mature on the South coast when only 9 inches long. Mr Cun- 

 ningham also gives an abstract of his researches on the coloration of the 

 skins of flat-fishes. 



In a paper on { the probable ages of young fish, collected by Mr Holt 

 { in the North Sea,' Mr J. T. Cunningham continues his researches on the 

 rate of growth of the food-fishes. The conclusions are based upon the 

 lengths of the specimens, in relation to the time that had elapsed since the 

 spawning season ; and tables are given regarding the plaice, flounder, dab, 

 sole, brill, turbot, cod, whiting, haddock, &c. Mr Cunningham refers to 

 the difficulty of fixing the maximum size of specimens derived from the 

 immediately preceding spawning season. He fixes it in the case of the 

 plaice at 3 inches, referring larger specimens to the spawning of the pre- 

 vious year. Some plaice (caught on 29th January) from If to 2^ inches 

 long, he believes to be at^least eight or nine months old. Similar parti- 

 culars are given regarding the other fish ; but, as Mr Cunningham points 

 out, the undoubted variability in the rate of growth of different speci- 

 mens of the same species, and the length of the spawning season, make it 

 very difficult to draw conclusions from such observations. 



The same number of the Journal contains a paper by Mr W. L. Calder- 

 wood, on the ' Ovary and Intra-ovarian Egg in Teleosteans,' which deals 

 chiefly with the state of the mature ovary, in its various conditions of 

 sexual activity or repose, especially in the dab and the hake. He con- 

 siders that in the ripening ovaries, ova for three consecutive spawning 

 seasons are present, the great, small, and minute, and each of these are 

 described. 



There are a number of short papers on the marine invertebrates of the 

 district, &c. 



Lancashire Sea Fisheries District Committee. — In previous Reports 



* Journal, vol. iii., No. 1, p. 98 ct seq. 

 t Vide Ninth Annual Report, Part III., p. 207. 



