of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



219 



VII.— Ri:.PORT ON THE OPERATIONS AT DUNBAR MARINE 

 HATCHERY for the Period July 1896 to December 1897, with 

 some NOTES ON REARING EXPERIMENTS WITH FLAT 

 FISHES. 



By Harald C. Dannevig. 



In my last Report on the operations at the Dunbar Hatchery, I 

 described experiments that had been carried out on the breeding of 

 turbot and lemon soles in the summer of 1895, and also reported on the 

 hatching of plaice during the spring season 1896. In the following pages 

 an account is given of the batching work that has been carried out since 

 then up to the present (February 1898). 



1. Experiments with Turbot. 



These were carried out in a modified form in accordance with the 

 experience obtained in 1895. From the report of that year it will be seen 

 that ripe fishes were transported from the West Coast and kept in the 

 tanks at Dunbar. Though the fishes were in an apparently thriving 

 condition they did not spawn naturally, a consequence, no doubt, of the 

 confinement immediately before the spawning season, and of the narrow- 

 ness of the tanks. It was therefore decided to collect immature turbots 

 locally and rear them in confinement till they reached maturity. This 

 collection was at once begun, and by the end of 1896 about eighty fishes 

 had been gathered. They measured from 10 to 14 inches in length, and 

 were captured by a small shrimp trawl on the shallow sands in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Dunbar. Fertilised turbot eggs were also transported from 

 the West Coast to Dunbar in the same way as had previously been done 

 with the fishes, a few millions being obtained in good condition, from 

 which 1,360,000 fry were produced. The collection of immature turbot 

 has been continued during 1897, and by the end of the year about 200 

 healthy fishes were kept in confinement here, measuring from 10 to 16 

 inches. They are well fed and in good condition, so that confinement at 

 this early age does not seem to affect them in the least ; and if they were 

 placed in a larger tank I have no doubt that in due course they will 

 produce eggs abundantly. 



2. Experiments with Breeding of Lemon Sole. 



The experiments were continued during the summer of 1897. In the 

 previous year an attempt had been made to collect these valuable flat 

 fishes from the trawlers, but most of them died soon after being landed. 

 By an improved treatment of the fishes in the tanks it was thought a 

 much larger percentage might survive the bad effects of the capture and 

 transport to Dunbar, and by collecting a large number (about 1150 fishes 

 were landed altogether) there was some hope that a fair number of healthy 

 spawners could be secured. It was found, however, that the previous 

 year's experience was repeated, as more than 700 fishes died within a 

 couple of days after they were landed. This number included nearly all 

 the females, which, owing to their advanced stage of development, were 

 less hardy than the males. The difificulty experienced with the lemon 

 sole is a direct consequence of the rough way in which the fish is captured 



