80 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
FISH HATCHING AT PIEL. 
By Anprew Scort, A.L.S. 
The fish hatching operations carried on at Piel in 
the spring of 1910 produced results very similar to those 
of past years. The adult plaice were obtained, as usual, 
by trawling late in the previous autumn in the closed 
portion of Luce Bay. Our thanks are again due to the 
Fishery Board for Scotland for granting permission for 
our fisheries steamer to fish in this protected area. The 
flounders were caught in the vicinity of Piel during the 
winter months by the police cutter stationed in the 
Northern division of the Lancashire district. 
The flounders commenced to spawn on March 10th, 
when 100,000 eggs were collected, and during the next 
three weeks the numbers increased rapidly. The first ferti- 
lised eggs of the plaice were not obtained till March 2l1st. 
This was twelve days later than in 1909. There appears 
to have been a general lateness in the fish spawning in 
the Irish Sea in the spring of 1910, as we had consider- 
able difficulty in getting nearly mature female whiting 
for dissection in the classes. The Hensen net collections 
were completed on March 7th, and the steamer proceeded 
on the following day to the fishing grounds lying between 
Lancashire and the Isle of Man to trawl for round fish 
for the class then assembled. It is in this area that one 
of the most important spring fisheries of the Irish Sea is 
carried on by the steam and sailing trawlers. The tow- 
net was used continuously to obtain surface organisms 
while the trawl was fishing along the bottom. Although 
collections were made over a considerable portion of the 
fishing area lying to the North of Morecambe Bay Light 
Vessel during nearly six hours, the total volume of fish 
egos obtained at the end of this period measured only 
about five cubic centimetres. Only the eggs of cod, 
