of the Fii^hrry Hoard for Scotland. 
21 
SECTION A — GRNEIiAL RKPORTS. 
L— KEPOUT ON THE TRAWLING EXPERIMENTS OF THE 
'GARLAND,' AND ON THE STATISTICS OF EAST 
COAST FISHERIES. Part Y. (Plates I., H.) 
L INTRODUCTORY. 
During last year the various trawling stations on the East and West 
Coasts of Scotland were examined by the ' Garland ' as heretofore. Each 
of the stations in the Firth of Forth and St Andrews Ray was examined 
once a month, so far as the weather permitted, and a large number of 
special hauls were made at various parts of the Coast, in connection with 
tiie inquiries into the capture and destruction of immature fish and other 
related investigations. The stations lying ofl' the Forfarshire and Aber- 
deenshire Coast, those in the Moray Firth, at the Orkney Lslands, and in 
the Firth of Clyde, -were also examined. The results of these trawling 
experiments of the ' Garland ' are given below, in the tables annexed to 
this Report. 
As far as circumstances allowed, an investigation was made of some of 
the important fishing-grounds lying off the coast, particularly those east 
of May Island and in the Moray Firth, which are periodically frequented 
by shoals of the food fishes for the purpose of spawning. By the constant 
use of the tow-nets at surface and bottom, and at intermediate depths, a 
very large collection of pelagic eggs and larval and post-larval fishes has 
been made. These are described by Professor M'Intosh in the present 
report {inde, p. 334), and will materially aid in increasing our knowledge 
of the reproduction and distribution of the food fishes. 
As in previous years, one of the naturalists, Mr Thomas Scott, F.L.S., 
was enabled by the courtesy of the owners, Messrs Joseph Johnston and 
Sons, Montrose, to accompany the steam-trawler ' Southesk ' on several of 
her trips to the fishing-grounds, and the information thus acquired is of 
special value in connection with the trawling experiments of the ' Garland.' 
The statistics in connection with the trav/ling experiments which have 
been collected as to the relative amounts of fish landed by line fishermen 
and beam-trawlers along the East Coast, the quantities obtained by lino 
fishermen from the territorial waters where trav ling is prohibited, the 
proportional amounts of small fish landed by beam-trawlers and line fisher- 
men, (K:c., are discussed below. A part of the work connected with the 
tabulation of some r»f these statistics lias fallen upon the fishery ofiicers 
of the districts concprned, namely, i\Ir John Murray, Newhaven ; Mr 
Mair, A.nstruther ; Mr J)onald Miller, ^lontrose ; Mr Bain, Stonehaven; 
and ^Ir Couper, Aberdeen. The trawling returns wore kept by Mr 
Thomas Scott, F.L.S. I have also to acknowleilge the assistance of Mr 
W. Ramsay Smith, B.Sf'., in the tabulation of the statistics, and the care 
and zeal with which Captain R. E. Simpson, in command of tho ' G irland,' 
has discharged his duties. 
