I0 r, SCIENCE PROGRESS 



mercial fishery statistics, for which a special grant was made 

 by the Treasury. Research work was undertaken by a few of 

 the district committees and by one or two scientific bodies, for 

 instance, the Lancashire and Western Fisheries Committee and 

 the Marine Biological Association, the latter body being the 

 only one in England and Wales at that time in receipt of State 

 aid in connection with fisheries work. 



In Scotland and Ireland scientific research was undertaken 

 at the cost of the State by the central fisheries authorities for 

 those countries. As the result of their deliberations the Com- 

 mittee of 1902 made certain recommendations, of which the 

 following were the most important. They stated it would be 

 necessary for the State to provide funds for the collection of 

 statistics from trawlers and the examination of material at the 

 ports, for the provision of the necessary assistants at the marine 

 laboratories already in existence, for the provision and main- 

 tenance of three research steamers, and for putting the staff in 

 Scotland and Ireland on a permanent basis. 



Between 1902 and the publication of the report of the 

 Committee on Fishery Investigations of 1908 a considerable 

 advance was made in the provision of fishery research. An 

 international council for the exploration of the north and 

 neighbouring seas was established as the result of international 

 conferences held at Stockholm in 1899 and Christiania in 1901, 

 to consider programmes for the investigation of the sea by 

 scientific inquiry with a view to promoting and improving the 

 fisheries through international agreements. The participating 

 countries were Great Britain, Denmark, Germany, Holland, 

 Norway, Russia, and Sweden, with (at the second conference) 

 Belgium and Finland. The total expenditure incurred by Great 

 Britain up to December 31, 1913, on the international investiga- 

 tion of the North Sea amounted to £154,919, exclusive of the 

 cost of printing the reports. 



In most other respects the position of the various authorities 

 engaged in fishery research was pretty much the same in 1908 

 that it had been in 1902. 



The Committee of 1908 recommended the establishment of 

 a Central Council for the United Kingdom which should have 

 control of public funds for fishery investigations of a national 

 and international character. They also recommended the 

 strengthening of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries as 



