CHAPTER XV 



APPLIED OCEANOGRAPHY 



AQUICULTURE— OYSTER AND MUSSEL 



FISHERIES 



Oceanography has many practical apphcations — chiefly, 

 but by no means whoUy, on the biological side. Even if 

 attention be directed only to contents of the sea of direct 

 value to man, as food, bait, adornment and other useful 

 products, these range from whales and fur-seals downwards 

 through many groups of lower marine animals, and even 

 sea- weeds (kelp, etc.), to the inorganic salt which is obtained 

 by evaporation in salt-pans and otherwise on many coasts. 

 As examples, it is only necessary to mention the valuable 

 pearl fisheries of Eastern seas and of many coral lagoons, 

 the sponge fisheries of the Levant, the precious red-coral 

 of the Mediterranean, the clam of America, the trepang of 

 China, our own lobster, crab, shrimp, prawn, and many 

 other minor coastal industries, before passing to two more 

 important products — (1) shellfish, such as oysters, and (2) 

 the true fishes, such as sole, cod, and herring — both of which 

 will be treated more in detail as man's harvest from the sea. 



These great fishing industries throughout the world 

 deal with hving organisms of which the vital activities and 

 interrelations with the environment are matters of scientific 

 investigation. Aquiculture is as susceptible of scientific 

 treatment as agriculture can be ; and the fisherman who 

 has been in the past too much the nomad and the hunter, 

 if not, indeed, the devastating raider, must become in the 

 future the settled farmer of the sea if his harvest is to be 



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