338 THE SEAS 



the collections at sea must be worked out under favourable 

 conditions and to this end a marine laboratory becomes a 

 necessity. A laboratory for fishery research must be fully 

 equipped both with staff and accommodation for study in 

 any branch of science. There must be biologists who can 

 deal with the collections of animals and plants made at 

 sea ; there must be chemists to study the salinity of the 

 water samples and gain an insight into the movements of 

 the water masses, to study the gases and other dissolved 

 substances in the sea water and note their interrelation 

 with the distribution of animals and plants as shown by the 

 biologists ; physical observations of temperature and light 

 penetration must be worked out ; and there remain the 

 statistical details on fish populations and catches to be 

 dealt with, for which a special mathematical knowledge 

 is required. 



But while such laboratories will be concerned purely 

 with research on the fisheries and the economic applications 

 of science, others are required in which research of a more 

 fundamental character may be carried out. In such 

 laboratories problems, which to the lay mind appear at 

 first sight to have no bearing on fishery research, are 

 studied. It is quite a common occurrence in scientific 

 research that an observation apparently of a very isolated 

 and inconsequent nature may be developed later into an 

 instrument with far reaching practical results. Opportunity 

 is afforded in these laboratories for workers from universities, 

 both of our own and other countries, to study many bio- 

 logical problems of a medical or other nature (see page 15). 



The investigation into the best methods of preserving 

 fish for food by freezing, and the effects of refrigeration 

 on the actual values of the fish flesh, is a subject that 

 has received very little attention as yet, and much study 

 of this kind can be carried out in laboratories, results of 

 which would be invaluable to the fishing industry. 



