BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 361 



degree of satisfaction thai we are able to Bay thai in this much-needed 

 work the United States ranks second to no other country. On the other 

 hand, Great Britain, whose fisheries are of \ ital importance t<> her for 

 food, has done little, and cannot ye1 boasl a Laboratory on the sea-shore. 

 Indeed, Professor Lankestet, an eminenl authority on marine biology, 

 declares the British fishing industries still barbaric. The produce <>i' 

 the sea is recklessly seized, regardless of the consequences of the 

 method, the time, or the extent of* depredations. 



According to an English authority, the old proverb thai "there areas 

 good fish in the sea as ever came out of it" no longer holds good. The 

 harvests of the sea in the future, like the harvests on land, will need 

 cultivating. It was shown, not long ago, thai in eight months 28 boats 

 engaged in the haddock fishery at Eyemouth, England, used 620 tons 

 of mussels — about 47,000,000 mussels — in the capture of haddock. Yet 

 Professor Lankester says that no pains are taken in England to culti- 

 vate or preserve the mussel, and knowledge of its reproduction and 

 growth is still incomplete, as it is of other bait. Soles are every year 

 becoming scarcer, and oysters are becoming more difficult to obtain. 

 At present, says this same authority, absolutely nothing is known as 

 to the spawning of the sole; and the male fish is not even recognized. 

 The reason for oysters being scarce is not known, nor how to make 

 them abundant. 



There are many economists in England who maintain that the hap- 

 hazard and improvident methods of fishing are exhausting the fish 

 supply of that country as surely as the mining is exhausting the sup 

 ply of coal. The supply of many kinds of fish is rapidly diminishing, 

 and the only way to check the waste is by systematic study of the 

 conditions which regulate the supply. It is undoubtedly true that 

 "the world could not be fed if men sought their food on land with as 

 little forethought and system as fishermen cast their nets into the sea." 

 To what extent these facts, which are causing considerable discussion 

 in England,' apply to the United States, we are not prepared to say. 

 The excellent work for many years of our Fish Commission exonerates 

 our Government from the charge of total neglect of this important 

 industry. Several States have fish commissioners, and, together with 

 the National Government, have accomplished much useful work in the 

 artificial breeding of codfish, shad, oysters, &c. Iudeed the produc- 

 tion of fish all over the United States has undoubtedly been largely 

 increased by scientific research. It is not improbable that the annual 

 fish product at present in the United States is equivalent to from 

 4,500,000 to 5,000,000 sheep. With the increasing demand for food, 

 and with abundant evidence from other countries of the result of neg- 

 lect, we should rather increase than relax our efforts to understand 



more about the food, habits, spawning, and propagati our flab, 



in rivers, lakes, and the sea, in order that the harvest may not grow 

 less as the demand becomes more urgent. 



