178 American FisheHes Society 



A brief comparison of the conditions of life found on 

 the land and in the ocean will help one to understand 

 the wonderful opportunities which are offered for deriv- 

 ing food from the sea. 



On the land there is one vast expanse of verdure. 

 Plants of all sizes from the minute algae to the giant 

 trees are abundant everywhere and they form the ulti- 

 mate food basis for animal life. The animals for the 

 most part are herbivorous. The Carnivora are com- 

 paratively few in number, which is a very important 

 condition for if they should exceed the vegetable feeders 

 in abundance it would soon mean extinction for both 

 races. 



In the sea, life conditions are very different. Vege- 

 table life is as inconspicuous in the sea as it is conspicu- 

 ous on the land. To be sure along the coast there is a 

 fringe of sea weeds and floating in the middle of the 

 ocean are great masses of algae such as the Sargasso 

 sea; but taken as a whole the ocean is barren of visible 

 vegetation. Under these conditions we find practically 

 no animals that correspond to the terrestrial Herbivora. 

 Most of the animals are carnivorous. A few fishes may 

 browse on the sea weeds which fringe the shore or float 

 in the water, but, on the whole, most marine animals are 

 voracious beasts of prey. The larger species devour the 

 smaller ones and these in turn feed upon those smaller 

 than themselves. Furthermore animal life swarms in 

 the sea in incredible multitudes. The naturalists of the 

 Challenger expedition reported that the waters of the 

 equatorial Pacific contained great banks of pelagic 

 animals through which the vessel sailed. Chiercha wrote 

 that the equatorial calms of the Atlantic are rich beyond 

 all measure in animal life and that the water often looks 

 and feels like coagulated jelly. The Challenger expedi- 

 tion reported having encountered banks of copepods a 

 mile thick and on one occasion to have steamed for two 

 days through a dense cloud formed of a single species, 

 one found distributed from the Arctic regions to the 

 equator. Of the fishes Professor Brooks says, "Herring 



