No. 4 (1921) FISHERIES OF NORWAY 25 



ice stores. These local societies have made wonderful strides in 

 recent years and their usefulness cannot be overrated in the way 

 they encourage mutual helpfulness, especially in regulating prices 

 and in focussing attention upon the local needs of the industry. 

 Perhaps their greatest value lies in the connexion they set up 

 between the local trade and the Fisheries Department. They 

 serve as intermediaries and interpret and regularize the local 

 demands for Government help. An enormous amount of spade 

 work is being done by these numerous societies, which constitute 

 auxiliaries of the greatest value to the Fisheries Department, and 

 enable it to concentrate upon larger problems, and those requir- 

 ing special expert and scientific training. No feature of fishery 

 administration in Norway impressed me more forcibly that did 

 the activity and usefulness of these societies as supplementary to 

 the wider organization provided by the Fisheries Department. 



At the other end of the scale we find help on the ultra 

 scientific side willingly given to the department by the two great 

 Biological Stations of Bergen and Trondhjem. In these institu- 

 tions pure research is the main object pursued, though as a matter 

 of fact this is utilized specifically in some instances at the request 

 of the department, in the elucidation of some problem of direct 

 practical significance. Also at the Trondhjem Station, the hatch- 

 ing of plaice for the replenishment of the waters of the fjord is 

 undertaken as an economic measure the expenditure on this head 

 being met from the Fisheries Department's budget. Again, the 

 physical observations of Pr-ofessor Helland Hansen at Bergen have 

 been practically important in the light they had shed upon fishery 

 problems. The department's experts by working in close colla- 

 boration with the scientific staff of these Biological stations find 

 their work facilitated and supplemented by this connexion to such 

 an extent that were it not available, the department's scientific staff 

 would have to be largely increased. One of the great lessons 

 which the Fisheries Department of Norwaj^ gives to the world is 

 the vast economy of utilizing every agency — popular as well as 

 scientific — to supplement the work of its own officers. 



VL— NORWEGIAN BIOLOGICAL STATIONS. 



Biological research in Norway, apart from the life-histories of 

 the important food fishes, is carried on, not by the Fisheries 

 Department staff, but by semi-private organizations, subsidized by 



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