On the Seasonal Abundance of Young Fish. VIII. the Year 1946, June to December

Abstract

During the years 1930–9 a series of records was obtained on the abundance of pelagic young of teleostean fish occurring in standard half-hour oblique hauls made with the 2 m. stramin ringtrawl in the neighbourhood of the Eddystone. These results provided a record by which the composition of the young fish populations could be compared from year to year and any marked changes brought to notice. During the course of the observations there had been a striking reduction in abundance of young fish, and this had been correlated with the movements of water masses as indicated by certain plankton animals. The series of observations was brought to a conclusion in August 1939 on the outbreak of war. The earliest opportunity after the cessation of hostilities has been taken to continue these observations on young fish, and collecting was started in June 1946 when a research ship was once more available. There has thus been a gap of nearly seven years during which there has been no detailed information on the conditions in the waters off Plymouth. The 1946 collections were started too late to include the main period of abundance of young fish resulting from the spring spawners, but they afford evidence that as regards the summer spawners at any rate there is no significant change from the conditions existing in 1939. We cannot say what the conditions have been during the intervening years, but analyses of phosphorus content of the water during each of the winters in the period 1939–46 tend to show that conditions have remained much as they are at present, and that it is unlikely that there has been any large incursion of the rich water characterized by Sagitta elegans which supports a large population of young fish.