556 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



or lesser degree in conducting scientific investigations with a view 

 to developing and conserving the fishery resources. The purpose of 

 the meetings of this organization is to coordinate the program of 

 research of the several nations with respect to high seas fishery 

 problems. 



In the membership of the council the United States is represented 

 by Dr. H. B. Bigelow, chairman, Museum of Comparative Zoology, 

 Cambridge, Mass.; by Henry O'Malley, Commissioner, and Elmer 

 Higgins, chief of the division of scientific inquiry, both of the U. S. 

 Bureau of Fisheries. Canada is rej^resented by W. A. Found, Deputy 

 Minister of Fisheries, Ottawa, and Dr. A. Gf. Huntsman and Prof. 

 J. P. MacMurrich, of the Biological Board of Canada. Newfound- 

 land's representatives were H. B. C. Lake, Minister of Marine and 

 Fisheries, St. Johns, Newfoundland; and Dr. Harold Thompson of 

 the Scottish Fishery Board, stationed for the present at St. Johns. 

 France is represented by Dr. Ed. le Danois, director. Office Scien- 

 tifique et Technique des Peches Maritimes, Paris. 



A wide range of subjects relating to the practical and scientific 

 problems of the fisheries occupied the attention of the committee dur- 

 ing its 2-day session. Reports were received from members of the 

 committee and from a number of investigators attending the session 

 as guests on investigations of the cod, haddock, mackerel, herring, 

 squid, Passamaquoddy power project, ocean currents and tempera- 

 tures, and fishery statistics. Particularly interesting contributions 

 were made by O. E. Sette and W. C. Herrington, of the North At- 

 lantic staff of the Bureau of Fisheries, who outlined their respective 

 investigations on the mackerel and the haddock. 



One of the high lights of the committee's session was Doctor le 

 Danois's exposition of his research in the waters off the coast of 

 Europe and on this side of the Atlantic. Investigations of the water 

 on the other side disclosed that mid-Atlantic water pushes to the 

 northward every summer and recedes in the winter, and that tliis 

 movement is particularly pronounced in certain years. Every 18 

 years there seems to be an exceptional movement of this warm water. 

 It appears that in the years of this movement of tropic waters north- 

 ward there is impaired success of the codfishery in its southern range 

 on the Grand Banks, forcing the fishermen to fish the waters north- 

 ward in order to make good catches. It has been because of the 

 movements of the fish northward in the past two or three years that 

 fishermen from Europe have come to Greenland in unprecedented 

 numbers. 



While heretofore Newfoundland has been able to contribute little 

 aid to scientific research in the North Atlantic region, it is at the 

 j)resent time embarking on such investigations on a considerable 

 scale. Dr. Harold Thompson, well-known fishery investigator of 

 the Scottish Fishery Board, has just completed a preliminary sur- 

 vey of the requirements of a program of practical and scientific 

 fishery investigations in Newfoundland, and is planning a sound 

 program of study employing the facilities of a laboratory ashore 

 and a research trawler at sea from funds to be furnished jointly by 

 the Newfoundland Government and the British Empire Marketing 

 Board. Through the efforts of the North American Council, Doc- 

 tor Thompson's proposed studies will be closely correlated with those 



