54 



results of tlie work carried on by the steamers and the 

 laboratories. 



(6) International Co-operation. — In order to secure 

 uniformity of action between the fisheries organisations 

 in England, Scotland and Ireland, to prevent overlapping 

 of areas and of investigations, and to arrange as to any 

 sub-division of work between the three countries, or with 

 foreign nations, the Ichthyological Committee recommend 

 that quarterly conferences should be held between repre- 

 sentatives of the Fisheiy Council for England, the 

 Fishery Board for Scotland, and the Irish Fisheiy Depart- 

 ment. " The meetings of this conference would give an 

 opportunity to the members of the three Central 

 Authorities to compare notes, to obtain information as 

 to what is being done in the three countries, and to make 

 suggestions to the three Central Authorities as to what 

 particular work should be undertaken by each " (Report, 

 p. XV.). It is only to this extent — (Quarterly Conferences 

 — that the Ichthyological Committee have considered it 

 practicable to constitute one Central Fisheries Department 

 for the United Kingdom. We may quote finally para- 

 graph 39 from the " Concluding Observations " of the 

 Report: — "The Committee believe that by carrying- out 

 these recommendations the State would recognise, co- 

 relate and control the work of the existing independent 

 organisations in the United Kingdom, and would build 

 lip a scheme of Fishery Research of a thoroughly practical 

 character, centring, as regards England, in the Board of 

 Trade, and, at the same time, in intimate contact with the 

 fishing trade, the district committees, and the scientific 

 laboratories round the coast " (p. xviii.j. 



