106 



THE HALIBUT 



The average sizes of the forty- eight hahbut examined was 

 as follows ; 



This characteristically excellent piece of work at the small 

 Cullercoats station is a good example of the kind of investiga- 

 tions which can be of real assistance to the deep-sea fishing 

 industry. Cullercoats, unlike most other marine biological 

 stations, is situated within easy reach by tram of a deep-sea 

 fishing port, and its workers are always in touch with the 

 owners and skippers of deep-sea vessels. This may account 

 for the fact that its staff seems never to lose sight of the possible 

 economic bearing of its researches. Mr. Storrow's halibut 

 material was probably too limited to justify any very definite 

 conclusions. But it does show that a useful line of investiga- 

 tions could be followed up with little trouble and at small 

 expense. We want to know whether broods of halibut are 

 wiped out in certain years, on the grounds our vessels fish ; 

 whether in certain years there is an abnormal survival of baby 

 halibut, and whether the babies thus nursed by nature through 

 the dangerous period survive to great age. These are facts 

 which could obviously enough be determined by collecting the 

 ear-stones of large numbers of halibut from all the different 

 grounds, and working out the results as Mr. Storrow has done. 

 The factors which make a ' good ' or ' bad ' hahbut season can 

 probably not be ascertained otherwise than by observations 

 made from research vessels of currents, temperatures, and 

 salinities, and their effect upon the baby food in the w^aters in 

 which the eggs actually hatch out ; but these observations 

 could, of course, be combined with work on other species. Here 

 is work immediately to be undertaken — the first part of it by 

 British investigators ashore, the second part by such research 

 vessels as the International Council may be able to detail for the 

 purpose. Once fishing skippers understood the object and 

 meaning of the ear-stone examinations, collections and data 

 would flow into the hands of the investigators, and the flow 

 would continue, provided always that the men were told the 

 results. Hitherto the complaint has been — and it is so common 

 that it can scarcely be baseless — that men who report marked 



