•21 



and others— so long as the men can be trusted to discrim- 

 inate between the sole and the solenette — and while I 

 would use every endeavour to get all the young soles 

 returned to the water as speedily as possible in the hope 

 of their recovery, I would allow the solenettes to be kept 

 on board and made any possible use of. 



If, as those best qualified to judge all seem to think, the 

 sole fishery is declining because of the increasing scarcity 

 of soles in our inshore waters, I would urge most strongly 

 that steps should be taken at once by artificial fertilization 

 and hatching to add to the numbers of the young in the 

 district, and so increase the chance of a fair number survi- 

 ving to maturity. It is undoubtedly more important in such 

 cases of diminution to add to the numbers of the fish in the 

 area than to put restrictions on the fishing. It may some- 

 times be necessary to do both, but the former (adding to the 

 numbers) is the most efficacious step and the latter (restrict- 

 ing the fishing) taken alone may be useless if the fish 

 population is much reduced. It probably holds good for 

 all communities of animals that if they fall in a particular 

 area below a certain level in numbers, and no fresh blood 

 is imported, then they are doomed to extinction — the 

 reason probably being that the number of young produced 

 in each season is not sufficiently greater than the number 

 killed off by normal {i.e., regularly acting) causes to allow 

 of a sufficient balance being present to meet the action of 

 any abnormal {i.e., unusual) causes, consequently at any 

 time the existence of the reduced community may be 

 threatened by some so-called accidental occurrence which 

 would have comparatively little effect in a large community. 

 I do not say that the sole fishery has arrived at this con- 

 dition — it has happened with the Oyster fishery in various 

 places — -but the way to avert such a calamity is to meet 

 it in time by artificial breeding and hatching, and so, 



