OUTCOME 267 
those kinds with which we are familiar, many pertinent questions 
may be asked to which we have no answer. Of how many of our 
common market fishes can we say we know the precise nature 
of their food, and if we know that a certain fish habitually feeds 
upon, say crustaceans, or upon molluscs or upon smaller fishes, 
we certainly cannot say exactly on our ocean floor where such are 
to be found: if we did we should be in a position to obtain the 
fishes of which we are in search. Fishes may, and do vary their 
haunts at different seasons, perhaps, on the whole, approaching 
the coasts in summer. At breeding time they may leave their 
usual feeding grounds and move inshore or into deeper water, 
according to their kinds, and this brings us to the important 
question of spawning: we require to know exactly at what 
season the fishes shed their ova, their relative fecundity, the 
position chosen for spawning, what the eggs are like, how those 
of different species differ, whether they sink, float or are attached 
to rocks, seaweed or other substances; the pecularities of their 
development, the enemies to which both the eggs and the young 
fishes are subject, at what size the fry leave the breeding ground, 
and ‘whence they migrate. 
Not all this information can be obtained by trawling alone; 
though the trawl is par excellence the engine for securing 
fishes in bulk, it should be supplemented by the use of dredges, 
which are designed to secure the smaller organisms upon which 
they may feed, samples of the bottom whereon the fishes are 
found, also demersal or sunken ova: for similar reasons tow or 
surface nets should be employed to secure pelagic organisms 
(Plankton and Nekton) including floating eggs. It is also neces- 
sary to have a shore station where the development of the ova 
can be studied and various observations and experiments made. 
Fortunately the Dominion possesses such a station at Portobello, 
where, if somewhat more generously equipped, the most satis- 
factory investigations could be carried on. 
In newer countries where no great depletion of food fishes has 
taken place, the needs for such investigations are not apparent, 
but, learning the lessons which older ones have taught, a time 
will come when our seas will be relatively less bountiful unless 
supplemented by artificial means or by importations from richer 
localities, and at such period it will be rather late to inaugurate 
observations which should now be commenced and continued 
towards the end in view. 
It is not as though we had to grope our way trying to discover 
methods of research, Britain, America, Japan and other countries 
have done this for us, so that all we have to do is to collect the 
necessary data by means already known to us. 
