REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS. 13 



THE TRACTICAL STUDY OF FISH. 



The Lancashire Sea Fisheries Joint Committee are about to 

 establish a Marine Laboratory on Eod Ishmd, near Barrow-in- 

 Furness, for the scientific and practical study of the life and habits 

 of sea fishes. The new Laboratory will be under the direction of 

 Professor Herdman, and will take the place of that at University 

 College, Liverpool. Li evidence of the success of similar institu- 

 tions we may quote from the history of that established at Ply- 

 mouth in 1888. Various Commissions on Trawling and Fisheries, 

 mainly with a view to inquiring into the damage or decrease of 

 fisheries, had found that they were working absolutely in the dark. 

 Every one knew all that needed to be known about nets, gear, 

 boats, stores, fishing, and marketing. But no one knew anything 

 worth knowing about the fish. When questioned, the practical 

 fishermen could give no practical information. They did not 

 know where the migratory fish came from. They were equally in 

 the dark as to where they went to. They did not know why they 

 came, or why they went. They wanted to stop trawling on 

 " spawning-beds." But trawlers denied that the fish in question 

 laid eggs on spawning-beds at all. It was scarcely fair to prohibit 

 trawling over ground at the bottom of the sea for fear of injuring 

 eggs which mig'ht be, and as it now appears are, floating on the 

 surface. Nothing was settled as to the food of the herrings, pil- 

 chards, and non-carnivorous fish, and when a cry was raised to 

 protect " immature fish " it was discovered that no one knew 

 when a sole or a turbot was " mature." Li America trial had been 

 made of the habits of a limited number of fish, and immense 

 hatcheries established, with one striking result. The cod at cer- 

 tain times leave the shores of New England to visit the colder 

 waters of Newfoundland. The millions of young fish turned out 

 in the hatcheries had established a race of non-migratory cod, re- 

 maining on the coast, and these formed a regular object of a fishery, 

 fishery, and named by the trade " Commission cod." But some- 

 thing more than a machine for producing young fish was needed, 

 — an institution which might stand in the same relation to the 

 national marine wealth and the history of fishes as Kew holds in 

 regard to the vegetable produce of the Empire and the natural 

 history of plants. In any case, the scientific and practical side 

 must be associated, if only, as Professor Ray Lankester urged, 

 because no such distinction could j^ossibly be drawn, and to ignore 



