INTERNATIONAL FISHERY INVESTIGATIONS 589 



International Bureau and to a Central Laboratory at Christiania. 

 The Bureau is under the direction of Dr. Hoek, a well-known 

 Dutch zoologist, while the Central Laboratory is controlled by 

 Nansen, the explorer and zoologist. The general direction and 

 co-ordination of the investigations are carried out by the Bureau 

 under the authority of the Council, and the principal reports 

 are also published there. At the Central Laboratory apparatus 

 of uniform pattern is devised and standardised, check analyses 

 made, standard samples of sea water prepared and furnished to 

 the various national staffs employed in the work, and investiga- 

 tions made with the object of securing uniformity of the 

 analytical results. 



The actual investigations are carried out by the various 

 national staffs. A national organisation has been set up in each 

 country which provides for the carrying on of the investigations 

 by the establishment of laboratories, scientific staffs, and ex- 

 ploring vessels. In Great Britain the actual work was handed 

 over to the Scottish Fishery Board and to the Marine Biological 

 Association (the two best equipped bodies for the biological 

 study of the sea in Britain). Each of these bodies has the 

 control of one or more vessels for research at sea. Work 

 ashore is carried out in Scotland at the Fishery Board Labora- 

 tory at Aberdeen, and at University College, Dundee; while 

 in England the Marine Biological Laboratory at Plymouth and 

 a similar institution at Lowestoft are the corresponding institu- 

 tions. A similar arrangement exists in each of the countries 

 participating in the investigations. The area over which the 

 latter are carried on is a very extensive one, and comprises 

 the whole of the North Sea, the Norwegian and White Seas, 

 North Atlantic to the north and west of Scotland, the English 

 Channel, and the sea off the west coast of Ireland. This ex- 

 tensive area is divided up between the various countries. 



Three main lines of investigation were contemplated by 

 those who drafted the Christiania programme. Recognising 

 that a knowledge of physical changes in the sea — such as 

 changes in temperature, salt contents, movements of great 

 bodies of sea water and the like— was fundamental, particular 

 attention was paid to the elaboration of a scheme of hydro- 

 graphical research. Then came the biological work based on 

 the collections made by the exploring vessels, and including 

 such studies as those of the life histories of fishes and other 



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