14 



OCEAN EESEAECH AND 



conditions — and particularly (it may be) the advance and retreat 

 of the polar ice — may have very much more intiuence on the 

 fluctuations in the catch of fishes of all kinds than any other 

 factor ; and that fishery research is fundamentally an ' ocean ' 

 investigation. He has tried also to show that the Industry has 

 been (and is) alive to the need for continuous and systematic 

 inquiry into these conditions. 



He started with the intention of confining his notes to the 

 more ' important ' species caught by British deep-sea vessels. 

 To that end he made the following table. In his view the 

 ' importance ' of a fish— especially at this juncture — should be 

 gauged by the amount of food which it provides. But it is of 

 course arguable that the species should be ranged in order of 

 the money which they bring to the producer, and in the table he 

 has thus fisted them. Well-to-do readers will find that their 

 personal acquaintanceship with ' British ' fishes is confined 

 largely to species which bulk small, but sell well. Few of them, 

 for instance, would recognize a ling or a coalfish, yet these two 

 fishes are — as the figures show — of real ' importance ' to the 

 consumer. Very few people indeed have any idea of the 

 interest attached to the founding of the great deep sea hake^ 

 fishery in 1903 and its subsequent development. 



The Comparative Value oj British Food Fishes (1913). 



To make this little book comprehensive it would be necessary 

 to include notes upon the catches and the habits of all these 

 commercial food fishes. But it lays no claim to be compre- 



* A redoubtable skipper, who had never before fished much below 80 fathoms, 

 was blown out beyond tlic 100 fathom line one night by a north-easterly gale 

 in July. Next morning, after going about, he found himself in 120 fathoms 

 about 35 miles off the Kerry coast. In desperation he shot his trawl, caught 

 ([uantities of hake, and continued to catch them (in depths hitherto regarded as 

 inaccessible) till October, all round the south of Ireland. 



