AiJD'E'RTOT^i .—Observations on Neiv Zealand Fishes. Vll 



Art, XLIII. — Ohservations on Netv Zealand Fishes, &c., made 

 at the Portohello Marine Fish-hatchery. 



By T. Anderton, Curator. 



Commiinicated by George M. Thomson, F.L.S. 



[Read before the Otago Institute, I3th Norember, 1906.] 



Plates XVII, XVIII, XIX, XX. 



Although the culture of trout, carp, perch, and many other 

 species of fresh- water fishes has been in vogue for centuries, it 

 is only mthin very recent years that serious attention has been 

 paid to the culture of marine food fishes. To such a fine art 

 has the former pursuit been reduced that there exist at the 

 present time, in England and elsewhere, fish-farms, some of which 

 are privately owned, while some are formed into limited-liability 

 companies. These farms are run, so to speak, on the same lines 

 as a poultry-farm — the eyed eggs, fry, yearUngs, &c., being pur- 

 chased by farmers and others desirous of stocking any ponds, 

 lakes, or streams on their property with fish. 



In 1864 Professor G. 0. Sars, the distinguished Norwegian 

 naturalist, was commissioned to make an investigation of the 

 cod-fisheries aroxmd the Lofoden Isles. During this work he 

 discovered in his tow-net collections large quantities of minute 

 transparent globules, which were afterwards identified as the 

 floating eggs of the cod. The following year he succeeded in 

 artificially fertilising and hatching these eggs. In 1868 Professor 

 Malm found that the eggs of the flounder were buoyant, though 

 he does not say they were actually floating on the surface. In 

 1882, in an account published in the United States by Professor 

 Alexander Agassiz. he states that the eggs of many of the 

 American fishes, including flat fishes, were of the buoyant type. 

 In 1884 Professor Mcintosh and Dr. Cunningham were engaged 

 in the study of floating spawn in Scottish waters, when the eggs 

 of the cod, haddock, gurnard, whiting, turbot, plaice, and many 

 other fishes were added to the list of pelagic or floating eggs. 

 Even so recently as 1885, during the sitting of the Royal Com- 

 mission on beam trawling in Scotland, it was most confidently 

 asserted by many " expert " witnesses that the beam trawl 

 caused the destruction of millions of fish-eggs upon the sea- 

 floor. 



Of late years a great deal more attention has been given to 

 this subject in Europe, but the most notable success has been 

 achieved by the United States Fish Commission, which was 

 estabUshed in 1871. As showing the extent to which fish-culture 



