The Seasonal Abundance and Distribution of the Pelagic Young of Teleostean Fishes Caught in the Ring-Trawl in Offshore Waters in the Plymouth Area

Abstract

A large number of collections were made with the 2-metre stramin ring-trawl in the years 1924, 1925 and 1926, to study the vertical distribution of young fish. Seeing that all these collections were made in exactly the same way, it was considered that they would form a good basis for a study of the quantitative differences in abundance of the different species at various times of the year. Accordingly, after 1926 the collections were supplemented in-1927, 1928 and 1929 by oblique hauls with the ring-trawl fishing at the same depths as those fished in the serial hauls in the study of the vertical distribution, that is the net was fished successively at the six different depths during half-an-hour's haul for 5 minutes at each depth. The results given in this report are all based on daylight catches.