SOME RESULTS OF THE INTEllNATIONAL FISHERY INVESTIGATIONS. 473 



kinds of fishing apparatus — trawls, lines, drift nets, etc. These are 

 designed to capture only certain kinds and sizes of fishes, and it is 

 these that would be represented in the returns. What the trawl, for 

 instance, captured that was not utilized would not be represented 

 in the statistics. Then the condition of the fishes, as regards spawning 

 or characteristic food, for instance, would not appear. We must re- 

 member also that commercial fishing apparatus would not give us any 

 knowledge of the fish population of the sea in general. The capture of 

 anything whatever, except those animals which are to be placed on the 

 market, is not desired, and the fishing nets are constructed with this 

 object. To know the condition of the fishing grounds, we must employ 

 other methods in addition to the study of the commercial products of 

 fi.shery. That is to say, exploring vessels equipped with other fishing 

 apparatus than those used by the fishing fieets must be employed, and 

 the statistics obtained by these vessels should supplement the commercial 

 figures. 



Here we trench on the purely scientific investigations of the fisheries, 

 and, indeed, there is no real dividing line between these two depart- 

 ments of research. They nmst be followed in conjunction, the one 

 supplementing the other. When the International Investigations were 

 devised this was recognized, and the synthesis of both statistical and 

 purely scientific researches, the two being controlled by the same 

 authority and carried out by the same organization, was elaborated. 

 A large portion of the results of the investigation published so far 

 consists therefore of statistical studies and discussions, 



A very good example of the scientific study of fishery statistics is 

 furnished by Henking's paper* dealing with the statistical material of 

 the Deutschen See-Fischerei-Verein. The latter body is a private fishery 

 research society, which, however, enjoys imperial recognition and patron- 

 age, and a considerable financial support from German state funds. 

 In the course of the years 1902-5, the See-Fischerei-Verein organized a 

 system of collecting statistics from German steam fishing vessels. Not 

 only does the information given to the society contain the quantities 

 and kinds of fish caught, but it also gives the regions of the North Sea 

 exploited by these vessels. In the year 1904 this system of statistical 

 collection had been completed, so that the See-Fischerei-Verein now 

 obtains the results of the fishing operations of the entire fieet of 

 German fishing steamers. 



Henking divides the North Sea into two areas: (1) the northern 

 North Sea area, which comprises the Great Fisher Bank, the Long 

 Forties, and the portion of the North Sea plateau which lies to the 



* llappis. et Proc.-vcrb., vol. iv., 1905, upp. F. See alao Bdheiligung Deutschlanda an 

 den Internationalen Untersuchungen, lid. i. 



