of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 
9 
Many of these trawlers belong to English ports, but fish off the 
Scotch coasts, and land their fish chiefly at Aberdeen. Since 1885 
the relative numbers of steam beam-trawlers belonging to Scotland 
and England respectively, and landing their fish at Aberdeen, are 
these :-— 
Scotch. English. 
1885 .... 18 29 ■ 
1886 
1887 
1888 
1889 
1890 
13 
10 
18 
20 
31 
29 
38 
42 
53 
47 
During 1890 the quantity of fish landed by line-fishermen along 
the East Coast of Scotland was 1,051,853^ cwts., as compared with 
1,111,3201 cwts. in 1889, or 59,467i cwts. less than in the latter 
year. Beam-trawlers lauded on the East Coast in 1890, 285,616J 
cwts. of fish, and in 1889, 227,413f cwts., showing, therefore, an in- 
crease during last year of 58,202f cwts., or an amount very nearly 
equal to the decrease of line-caught fish. In the stretch of coast 
previously referred to (from Aberdeen to North Berwick), where 
special scientific statistics are collected, line-fishermen caught in 
the territorial waters in 1890 107,229 cwts. of fish, and in 1889 
129,965 cwts. — a decrease last year of 22,736 cwts., taken from the 
waters where trawling is prohibited. The average catch per shot 
was however greater in 1890 than in 1889. Last year each visit 
to these fishing-grounds yielded 3-108 cwts., as compared with 
3*029 cwts. in 1889, or a weight of fish amounting to scarcely nine 
pounds per ' shot' more than in the previous year. Having regard 
to the great diminution in the number of 'shots' of the fishing- 
line made in 1890, as compared with 1889, it is diffieult to say 
how much of this increase is due to prohibition of trawling, and 
how much to the abstention of line-fishermen. At all events, the 
productiveness of the territoral or inshore waters, so far as the 
quantity of fish taken from them is concerned, has diminished. 
2. The Capture and Destruction of Immature Fish. 
In last year's Report a paper by Dr T. Wemyss Fulton was pub- 
lished, defining the term * immature fish,' in relation to the differ- 
ent kinds of food-fishes, describing their distribution in inshore and 
offshore waters, and their capture by the various modes of fishing. 
In the present Eeport will be found the results of a continuation 
of this investigation, directed mainly to the determination of the 
question whether immature fish captured in trawl-nets would sur- 
vive if returned after capture to the sea. A large number of ex- 
perimental observations on the subject were made on board the 
* Garland,' and on board boats engaged in shrimp-fishing, and these 
are fully described in the present Keport. It has been very widely 
held that there was little use in returning immature fish captured 
