THE HADDOCK PEOBLEM 83 



the tluctuations. It is unnecessary to point out that the 

 answers may throw some Hght on the plaice problem and 

 other alleged cases of ' overfishing '. 



There is at present little indication that British investigators 

 intend to tackle this question seriously. But the Norwegians 

 have for years been, and still are, collecting data bearing on 

 the life-history of the fish. 



It is greatly to be hoped that this Norwegian work will be 

 explained step by step to British owners and British skippers, 

 who are the haddock fishers of the world par excellence. 



Few naturalists have a gift of explaining fishery problems in 

 simple language equal to that of the great sea-going naturalist 

 Dr. Hjort, who has spent his life in close intimacy with deep-sea 

 fishermen in all waters. Most unfortunately his haddock 

 work has not been brought up to date in English. A separate 

 chapter will explain its earlier stages. 



Future Investigations 



Further information is required as to the spawning grounds 

 of the haddock, the food of the larvae in the earhest stages, 

 the supply of that food (both animal and vegetable) in the 

 waters in which the larval period is spent, and the growth 

 on all the grounds which our fleets visit. It is true that 

 Dr. Hjort's deductions are based on data collected from the whole 

 of the North Sea. It is also true that the work can be entrusted 

 to the Norwegians with perfect confidence that it will be well 

 carried out. But the fish are of such great interest to Britons — 

 both producers and consumers — that British naturalists ought 

 to be in close touch with all haddock investigations; and even 

 if this is a matter w^hich cannot immediately be arranged, all 

 researches into the species should be explained, not only when 

 they are ' complete ', but step by step as they proceed. 



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