SIXTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 



TO THE EIGHT HONOURABLE 



LORD BALFOUR of BURLEIGH 



Iler Majesty's Secretary for Scotland. 



Office of The Fishery Board 

 FOR Scotland, 

 Edinburgh, \d May 1898. 



My Lokd, 



In continuation of our Sixteenth Annual Eeport, we 

 have the honour to submit — 



PART III— SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATIONS. 



GENERAL STATEMENT. 



In this part of the Sixteenth Annual Report will be found an 

 account of the principal scientific investigations conducted by the 

 Board during 1897, in connection with the sea fisheries of Scot- 

 land. In the course of the year the investigations, which were 

 carried on under the supervision of the Scientific Superintendent, 

 were prosecuted on the same general lines as in previous years, and 

 have resulted in further extensions of knowledge respecting the 

 life-history and habits of the food fishes and the marine inverte- 

 brate fauna. Besides the researches, the results of which are set 

 forth in this Report, a number of other enquiries have been in pro- 

 gress, but are not yet concluded. Among these may be mentioned 

 the migration of the herring in Loch Fyne and the Firth of Clyde, 

 the action of the seine-net for herrings in the capture of immature 

 fish and the alleged destruction of spawn, the life-history of the 

 edible crab, and the demarcation of the spawning areas in the 

 Moray Firth. 



A considerable part of the scientific enquiries have been carried 

 on by means of the ' Garland,' the small steamer which the Board 

 possesses for this work. As explained in previous Reports, the 

 small size of this vessel has restricted the area and the scope of 

 the scientific investigations, which have for the most part been con- 

 fined to the territorial seas and to the firths and bays. Owing to 



