FOREWORD 



Vll 



and Development and the Shrimp Commission, made possible and desirable 

 the inauguration of the Institute. This was established by action of the 

 President and the Executive Committee of the Trustees September 29, 1947. 

 Actual operations of the Institute began with the inception of the Shrimp 

 Survey January i, 1948. The establishment of the Institute comes into the 

 story of the Survey, not only because the Survey was intended to give a 

 foundation to the Institute, but also because the Institute was able later to 

 make substantial contribution to the Survey. Its biological staff, working 

 under Dr. Taylor's direction, completed the greater part of the biological 

 section, including all such parts as had not previously been drafted. 



The general purpose of the Survey was not to gain new knowledge by 

 observation, experimentation or research in the ordinary sense. Rather it was 

 to assemble wherever it could be found and to digest and summarize all 

 discoverable records and reports with respect to physical, chemical, and 

 hydrobiological conditions of coastal waters, the several fishery resources of 

 the State, the current status of the commercial and sport fisheries, and the 

 potentialities in development. The report of the Survey, as it was planned, 

 should make it hereafter unnecessary to go back ordinarily to the extremely 

 scattered original records. The Survey should mark the point of departure 

 from which future researches might begin. All materials gathered would be 

 critically examined and so presented with comments and interpretations that, 

 not only scientists, but also any interested, intelligent reader might gain a 

 fair conception of the magnitudes and potentialities of the State's fisheries 

 and might sense the general directions in which further research would likely 

 prove most productive. 



The program of the Survey divided itself along natural lines into fairly 

 distinct parts. Part I would deal with the basic inorganic determinants 

 of life in the region under consideration: that is to say, the chemical, physical, 

 and hydrographic conditions of the State's coastal and estuarial waters. 

 Part II would treat the plants and animals upon which the fisheries and 

 fishery industries must be based — the marine algae, the shell fishes of various 

 kinds, and the fin fishes. In Part III concern would be with economic 

 conditions in the broadest sense, including procedures and potentialities in 

 exploitation, processing, and marketing. Finally, Part IV would embrace 

 a comprehensive study of public attitudes and acts with respect to exploita- 

 tion and conservation as these are expressed in legislation and administration 

 affecting the resources and their utilization; it was planned to include a 

 far-reaching study of the history of fishery regulation with analyses of its 

 motivations and common guiding principles. 



As it turned out, the fourth part had to be abandoned for the time. This 

 is only because it has not yet been possible to find an available person 

 properly qualified by legal training and experience to carry out so difficult 



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