6 GEORGE V SESSIONAL PAPER No. 38a A. 1916 



PREFACE. 



• 



By PaoF. Edward E. Prince, LL.D., D.Sc, F.R.S.C, Dominion Commissioner of 

 Fisheries, Chairman of the Biological Board of Canada, Member of the British 

 Science Guild, London, Vice-President International Fisheries Congress, Wash- 

 ington, B.C., 1907, Chairman of International Relations, American Fisheries 

 Society, etc. 



A selection of the reports prepared by members of the scientific staff at the Biolo- 

 gical Stations of Canada, on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, is now presented as an 

 appendix to the 5th annual report of the Naval Service Department, Fisheries' Branch. 



Of the seventeen papers, seven of them are zoological, and have a direct practical 

 bearing upon the fisheries. Four of them relate to fish culture, especially lobster, 

 oyster and shellfish culture generally. Two of them are of a botanical and chemical 

 character, and have special reference to the utilization of important seaweed resources, 

 which yield chemical products of extreme value. One report describes a disease, epi- 

 demic in fishes, and adds another to the series of papers on fish epidemics which have 

 appeared in previous volvimes of " Contributions to Canadian Biology." Three of the 

 papers are hydrographic and physical, and comprise researches which must be regarded 

 as preliminary to surveys of the fishing areas to which they have special reference. 



It is not necessary to point out that the Biological Stations, maintained by tlie 

 Dominion Government, must prove of great benefit to the fishing industries, nor to 

 affirm that university students, and members of the staffs of the various universities 

 in the Dominion, have unequalled opportunities now afforded for carrying on the 

 highest researches into the life of the sea, which formerly were supplied only by foreign 

 Biological Stations. The opportunity is being taken advantage of more and more as 

 the years advance, and during the last season or two the tables at the Marine Biolo- 

 gical Stations of Canada have been fully occupied, and the laboratories at times have 

 been somewhat overcrowded. There is a growing desire on the part of the biologists, 

 both junior investigators and senior members of university staffs, to aid in contri- 

 buting to our knowledge of the valuable fishery and other resources of our prolific 

 Dominion waters. 



Apart from the work actually carried on at the stations, the Biological Board 

 entered upon an investigation in 1914 of a very special character, namely, the herring 

 fisheries of the gulf of St. Lawrence and the Atlantic coast of Canada generally. An 

 eminent expert. Dr. Johan Hjort, Director of Fisheries, Norway, consented to conduct 

 an elaborate series of researches with the aid of a staff of trained Canadian biologists. 

 The parliamentary vote provided annually for the purposes of the Biological Stations 

 was wholly insufficient to meet the expenditures involved in this extensive herring 

 scheme, and a special appropriation, with the consent of the Honourable the Minister, 

 was generously provided, which assisted materially in enabling the Biological Board 

 to carry through the researches successfully. Professor Willey, McGill University, 

 Montreal; Dr. A. G. Huntsman, University of Toronto, Toronto; Professor J. W. 

 Mavor, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Dr. Bjerkan, of Bergen, Norway, and 

 others, assisted Dr. Hjort, and a preliminary report was completed, and issued early 

 this year, to be followed by a more elaborate and detailed report which will be issued 

 in the course of a few months. The board has been indebted, in connection with this 

 work, to the University of Toronto for the use of laboratories, and assistance by 

 various members of the university staff, and to Principal Sexton, Halifax Technical 

 College, Nova Scotia, the Biological Board was also indebted for many courtesies. 



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