478 SOME RESULTS OF THE INTERNATIONAL FISHERY INVESTIGATIONS. 



knowledge of their life histories slowly acquired by the naturalist, 

 would provide the material for the legislators. Bearing this in mind, 

 the reader will see how valuable would be a knowledge of the places 

 where the fishing fleets have worked from month to month throughout 

 the year, for when considered along with the statistics of the fishes 

 caught by them, this information would show us how the vessels had 

 been following the fish from fishing ground to fishing ground. In 

 Thompson's paper, already referred to, a beginning has been made of the 

 collection of information of this kind. The twelve beautiful charts* of 

 the northern North Sea which are contained in this paper show from 

 month to month the positions of the Aberdeen trawling and lining 

 fleets. These show how the fishing vessels move from place to place, 

 sometimes aggregated on a relatively small area, at other times widely 

 dispersed. It is the migrations of the fishes forming the objects of the 

 fisheries that are the cause of these movements of the fishing fleets, 

 and the latter are, to some extent, a representation of the former. 



I will refer to only one more statistical study made by the Inter- 

 national organization. The reader will find in volume iii. of Bcvpports 

 ct Procts-verhaux a comprehensive survey of the fishery statistics of 

 the various participating countries, which will show him how very 

 deficient our knowledge of the economics of the industry is, and how 

 great is the need for the co-ordination of the statistical bureaux of the 

 North European fishing countries and for improvement in the means 

 of collection. If as one result of the International Investigations a 

 central statistical office could be instituted, which would receive, 

 collate, discuss, and publish the statistics of the North Sea fisheries, 

 a store of knowledge of incalculable value to the fishing industry would 

 gradually be accumulated. When the International Investigations began, 

 the most prominent question, in this country at least, was that involving 

 the effects of capture of small plaice on the so-called eastern grounds 

 of the North Sea. The material for the treatment of this question did 

 not then exist, and its acquisition was one of the aims of the Inter- 

 national Fisheries Council. In 1904 the various Governments con- 

 cerned began systematically to collect statistics of the sizes of plaice 

 landed by their fishing fleets. In volume iv. of the Rapports et Prods- 

 vcrhaux the first results of this work are published, though previously 

 the English Board of Agriculture and Fisheries had instituted such 

 investigations with reference to the Immature Fish Bill then before 

 Parliament.! In the paper J referred to is contained a summary of the 



* U'Arcy Thompson, Fishery and Hydrograiihical Investigations in the North Sea (cd, 

 2612), 1905, p. 352. 



t See Archer, Jiejwrt of the Committee on Sea Fisheries Bill (H.L.), 1904. 



J Kyle, "First report on the statistical luaterial received by the Bureau regarding the 

 quantities of small plaice landed in the various countries," Jiuppis. et Froc.-verb., vol. iv., 

 1905, app. (J. 



