THE POSITION IN 1920 203 



hopelessly wasteful than towing a trawl over grounds which 

 do not hold hsh, and thousands of pounds are expended every 

 year in steaming to distant grounds before ever a trawl is shot. 

 We thus arrive at a direct connexion between the marine 

 naturalist and the problem of ' cost of production '. One of 

 his tasks is to say where and when particular kinds of fish are 

 likely to be plentiful, and to save industry the expense of 

 fruitless searches. Naturalists have advanced, as we have 

 seen, some way towards, but are still very far from having 

 attained, a degree of knowledge which would enable them to 

 perform this function. 



They must now ' carry on ' with their search for the causes 

 of the fluctuations in the catches of various species, remembering 

 of course that a diminished catch does not by itself necessarily 

 denote a diminution of the stock in a particular area of the sea 

 bottom. It may always be due to the fact that fewer vessels 

 have searched the area, that they were less competently handled, 

 or that they were not carrying good weather — or good luck. 



Much progress, no doubt, can be made by studying ashore 

 the scales and otohths and measurements of samples landed 

 from commercial vessels. But fishery problems cannot be 

 solved fully until our naturalists are adequately equipped mth 

 ships for the exploration of the sea bed. How far other nations 

 will be able in the next few years to solve our British problems 

 for us remains to be seen. Our statesmen have quite definitely 

 refused the minimum equipment which would enable us to 

 solve some of the most important of them for ourselves. No 

 blame attaches to the politicians. They are, after all, laymen, 

 and little attempt has hitherto been made by the initiated to 

 share with laymen a proper appreciation of Ocean Research. 



APPENDIX TI 



FLUCTUATIONS IN THE LANDINGS AT ENGLISH 

 POETS, 1906-20 



In the following tables fishes have been classified, as Hjort 

 classifies them : (a) according as they are derived chiefly from 

 northern waters or from the Atlantic (see chap, xxxii) ; 

 (h) according as they occur in shallower or deeper waters ; with 

 the followint^ results : 



