[5] Her fish-hold was gutted and turned into cabin accommodation for sea-going 'naturalists' and their assistants, and a laboratory was provided on deck, so setting the pattern for many subsequent fishery research vessels.

Huxley was the first research vessel acquired by the MBA that was able to venture into open waters, and was thus used to survey the southern North Sea, the English Channel, and the area west of Plymouth.

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.

[10] Within the first year, 1,463 plaice were marked in this fashion, 19% of which were recaptured - proving that a significant proportion of the North Sea fish stock was being caught by fishermen each season.

[10] In January 1910, on instruction from the Chancellor of the Exchequer, HM Treasury passed responsibility for North Sea fishery investigations to the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries (later MAFF), who in-turn were required to come to an agreement with the Marine Biological Association (MBA) as to how scientific investigations could continue into the future, in support of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES).