THE COD 



93 



a fortnight later they will he getting two-pounders, and hy 

 Christmas large cod will be feeding within one hundred yards 

 of the shore. But the fluctuations from year to year on all 

 grounds are extreme. 



Fluctuations in the Catch 



The following table of the comparative catch by English 

 steam-trawlers on the main cod-banks for the years 1906 to 

 1913 seems to show that the efforts of mankind have (hitherto 

 at any rate) produced no traceable effect upon the supply of cod. 

 Fluctuations, it is true, occur — and very great fluctuations — on 

 all the banks. But these are, as we shall see, almost certainly 

 due ultimately to the play of natural forces such as the advance 

 or contraction of the polar sea-ice over particular periods. This 

 is true not only of cod, but of other fish hke the herring and the 

 coalfish. It does not mean that ocean research can be of no use 

 to cod fishermen. It means just this : that research should be 

 directed towards the study of the effect of these cosmic pulsa- 

 tions on the birth, growth, and wanderings of the fish. As this 

 is ascertained — and it is surely ascertainable — it will eventually 

 be possible for Science to foretell when and where the fisherman 

 stands the best chance of finding the particular sort of cod 

 which the markets demand ; and inquiries which at first sight 

 appear to be remote from the practice of fishery will be found 

 to be of real economic value. 



