Abstract
ALTHOUGH three members of the staff of the Fisheries Laboratory, Lowestoft, who were acting as coastal fishery officers, succeeded in making scientific observations which have given valuable information on the war-time recovery of fish stocks, all co-ordinated scientific work at the Laboratory was suspended during the War. The Laboratory reopened in September 1945, when ichthyometric work on the chief food fishes and age-composition observations on the North Sea plaice and herring were resumed at the appropriate ports of landing. Plans for work in the waters around the British Isles and in the Arctic fishing grounds are in active preparation. These include the construction of a new laboratory, the building of a large research ship of the type used by the Hull trawler owners for the prolific Arctic fishery, and the conversion for research work in the North Sea of the Admiralty trawler Sir Lancelot, built during the War on the model of a successful commercial type-the Star of Orkney. In the meantime, a 90-ft. motor fishing vessel of a class built by the Admiralty with a view to subsequent use as fishing boats has been borrowed and converted to carry a trawl on the starboard side. This vessel is to be known as the Platessa. While her main task will be to mark large numbers of plaice in the southern North Sea so as to obtain vital information on the yield of the stock at the present rate of fishing, it is also hoped to gain information on the suitability and efficiency of this type of craft as a commercial trawler.
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Fisheries Laboratory, Lowestoft. Nature 157, 473 (1946). https://doi.org/10.1038/157473c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/157473c0