The past year has been an exceptional one in regard to weather conditions, and apparently also in the distribution of the Plankton. The summer was extraordinarily dry and hot, with a calm sea, and on the West Coast of Britain the phytoplankton seems to have given place to the summer zooplankton sooner than has been usual in recent years.
A preliminary note on the more obvious results seen in the collections made under my direction during the past spring, summer and autumn may therefore be of interest to other workers: a detailed account of these collections will appear in the Lancmhire Sea-Fisheries Laboratory Report some months hence.
I have over 500 plankton samples collected in the Irbh Sea, from Port Erin as a centre, during 1911, and a large number of others (not yet examined) taken off the West Coast of Scotland from the north of Ireland up to the Shetland Islands.
Three samples (fine net, coarse net and vertical haul) me taken twice a week in Port Erin bay throughout the year. My colleague Mr. Andrew Scott is at present investigating the Irish Sea material, so that it is still too early to make quite definite statements, and the following remarks must be regarded as giving chiefly the impressions formed at the time of collecting-supplemented in some cwes by the microscopic examhation made since.
Noctiluca miliaris wa8 still living in the sea round the Isle of Man up to the end of January 1911, an unusual circumstance due, perhaps, to the mild winter.
In March and April, in the Irish Sea, round the Isle of Man, Biddulphia mobiliensis and Coscinodisous concinnus were well represented, and Chaetoceras decipiens and C. teres were also Dab Quantity in C.C. May 1 2,5 n 4 130 n 10 6,5 11 13 3092 n 16 6012 n 19 54,6 n s 3096 ) , 25 8,s 14,s 11,3 n s n 3 24,7 n b 12,7