55 



Scheme for the Investigation of the Irish Sea. 



(As drawn up by Professor W. A. Herdman, F.R.S., for 

 the Ichthyological Research Committee). 



The suggestion, which I have made on several occa- 

 sions, that a detailed scientific survey of the Irish Sea 

 should be undertaken either by a Central Fisheries 

 Department or by the Lancashire District Committee in 

 co-operation with the Irish Fisheries Department, was 

 first proposed in 1892, and was printed, in part, in my 

 first Annual Ileport. More recently it was drawn up in 

 further detail, and forms a portion of the Ileport for 1900. 

 But as I had occasion last winter to revise and enlarge 

 the scheme considerably at the request of the Committee 

 on Ichthyological Research, who desired that I should 

 lay a detailed programme before them, and as the matter 

 concerns Lancashire primarily, I think it well to reprint 

 here the essential part of what was submitted to that 

 Departmental Committee, with a few slight additions. 



It is generally agreed, I think, that if one steamer is 

 to carry on all the work of our enlarged district, and if 

 police work is to be regarded as the first duty, then 

 sufficient time does not remain in which to carry out an 

 adequate programme of scientific investigation. The 

 following scheme is, therefore, drawn up on the 

 basis that one steamer would be devoted to scientific 

 and statistical work alone in the Irish Sea. It would be 

 better still if one such steamer from the Lancashire side 

 could collaborate with another fiom the Irish coast. In 

 addition to this work at sea by the steamer there is much 

 that must be done on shore at the ports of landing in order 

 to obtain the fullest and most reliable information as to 



