RV Huxley contribution to the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (Scotland, the northern section, was treated differently). Fishery investigations began in September 1902 under the directorship of Walter Garstang. The work consisted of systematic exploration of the North Sea trawling grounds at different seasons of the year, together with studies of growth and migration of plaice "Pleuronectes platessa" based on tagging experiments, examination of the food of fish and the nature of the seabed. Detailed catch records from North Sea survey stations between 1902 and 1903 were summarised in a report published by Garstang in 1905. Research continued until
Flatfish …bony fish as a rule have a marked tendency to be flattened in a vertical direction…. It was natural, therefore, that when the ancestors of [flatfish] took to the sea bottom, they should have lain on one "side"…. But this raised the problem that one eye was always looking down into the sand and was effectively useless. In evolution this problem was solved by the lower eye ‘moving’ round to the upper side. Flatfish is considered a Whitefish because of the high concentration of oils within its liver. Its lean flesh makes for a unique flavor that differs from species