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Part III. — Ninth Annual Report 
and these only long rough dabs and common dabs ; but there was a con- 
siderable mortality among immature whitings, gurnards, and cod, especi- 
ally if the net had been down for a long time, or on a muddy bottom. 
When the haul lasted only a short period, or was made on clean 
sand, very few died in the tub. The converse experiment was made, 
namely, fish that appeared dead when landed on deck were placed in the 
tub, to see if they would revive. In the great majority of cases they did 
not recover. 
3. The Capture of Immature Fish in Shrimp-Trawls. 
In last year's Report (p. 185) I gave some statistics as to the number of 
small fish captured in shrimp-trawls. These have since been largely sup- 
plemented, and I have personally investigated the subject on board the 
shrimping-boats. The object I had in view was to ascertain, in a definite 
way (1) the quantity and kind of immature fish captured by the shrimp- 
trawl; (2) the likelihood of the immature fish surviving if returned to 
the water. The experiments were carried on in the Solway, in the Firth 
of Forth, St Andrews Bay, and on the Lancashire coast. In the special 
hauls made in the Solway, extending over a period of nine months, only 
a few immature common soles, whitings, cod, and rays were obtained ; 
rather more immature common dabs, and a few sprats, sand-eels, &c. 
On the other hand, immature plaice were present in great numbers, the 
Solway Firth, in fact, forming a great nursery for this fish. They were 
also abundant on the Lancashire coast. The following table gives the 
numbers and sizes of immature plaice captured in fifteen hauls of the 
shrimp-trawl : — 
Date. 
Number 
Caught. 
Size in Inches. 
Date, 
Number 
Caught. 
Size in Inches. 
Date. 
Number 
Caught. 
Size in Inches. 
2i-4i 
li-2i 
24-41 
14-2i 
24-4i 
July 25.* 
1417 
29 
Nov. 24. 
122 
143 
Apr. 8. 
184 
47 
Oct. 30. 
327 
72 
Dec. 3. 
135 
31 
„ 15. 
271 
46 
Nov. 6. 
208 
142 
„ 9. 
202 
115 
„ 21. 
231 
85 
„ 14. 
102 
166 
„ 13. 
136 
73 
May 2. 
122 
126 
„ 18. 
138 
157 
Apr. 1. 
190 
73 
„ 6. 
237 
83 
* Representing three hauls by the same boat in one day. 
In many of the hauls no other immature food-fish was obtained. The 
average number of immature plaice caught in each haul of the net was 
257. Three shots a day may be taken as the number usually made by 
each boat, and this would give 770 as the average daily catch of imma- 
ture plaice per boat. Shrimp-fishing is carried on in the Solway for 
between eight and nine months in the year, and I am informed that four 
days a week may be considered a fair average number of days during 
which the fishing is prosecuted. On these data the total number of 
immature plaice captured by each boat in the course of a year would be 
over 110,000, and for the thirty boats over 3,300,000. Calculating from 
the numbers obtained in the fifteen hauls, the numbers of immature 
specimens of the other food-fishes annually captured would be, roughly — 
Common soles, 20,000; flounders, 13,000; common dabs, 130,000; 
whitings and cod, 190,000. The Annan fishermen, however, are very 
