The Size Of Mature Plaice, Turbot, And Brill, On Different Fishing Grounds

Extract

In the previous number of the Journal, I described my reasons for doubting whether the conclusions drawn by Mr. Holt, concerning the size at which plaice become mature, would hold good for the whole of the North Sea; and also whether the evidence he relied upon, in distinguishing mature and immature plaice, was sufficient. I stated that, as an actual fact, one sample of mature plaice, which were much below the limits of size determined by Mr. Holt, had come into my hands. I suggested, as a probability, that the presence of dead degenerating eggs in the tissue of the ovary was a proof that the fish had spawned, was a spent, and therefore a mature specimen. My words were: “It cannot be asserted as a certainty that these granular masses never occur in an immature ovary; to settle the doubt it will be necessary to make a careful examination of plaice in November and December, when all fish which are about to spawn will have a large amount of yolk in the eggs, and all fish in which the eggs are transparent and yolkless must be immature.” It was already known that these degenerating eggs do occur in spent ovaries, from which the ripe eggs have recently been discharged, and which bear evidence of the fact in their somewhat large size, flaccid and collapsed condition, and usually in the presence of a few detached ripe eggs in their interior.