The Action to be Taken Regarding the Appointment by the International 

 Council for the Exploration of the Sea of a Representative on the Com- 

 mission. — It was proposed and carried that the Secretary should be 

 instructed to write to the International Council for the Exploration 

 of the Sea and ask them to appoint a representative. 



Consideration of a Note, Drawn Up and Circulated to All Members 

 of the Commission, on the Need for Establishing Marine Biological and 

 Oceanographic Laboratories in Various Parts of the World. — The Secretary 

 drew attention to the fact that FAO have formulated a comprehensive 

 scheme by which the oceans and seas are divided into seven regions, 

 in each of which it is proposed to establish an International Council 

 on the lines of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, 

 and that steps had already been taken to set up such a council for 

 South-east Asia. The Secretary also informed the Commission that a 

 proposal for the establishment of a marine biological and oceanographic 

 laboratory- in the Kei Islands had been brought before the International 

 Union of Biological Sciences at their meeting in 1947, and that a Com- 

 mittee, of which he was Chairman, had been appointed by the Union 

 to consider this project. This Committee had reported that, owing to 

 lack of necessar}' facilities, it was considered impracticable to set up a 

 permanent laboratory in these islands, but that if a parent laboratory 

 could be established somewhere in the South-east Asian area it might 

 be possible to have a subsidiary temporary laboratory in the Kei Islands. 



Professor H. Boschma informed the Commission of the very great 

 opportunities that exist in the area round the Kei Islands for the study 

 of the deep-sea fauna, which here thrives in as shallow a depth as 

 200-400 metres. 



Professor Louis Fage urged that a resolution should be sent to 

 UNESCO, as suggested in the Secretary's note, urging the establishment 

 of a marine biological and oceanographic laboratory in this area. 

 He pointed out that the Food and Agricultural Organization at the 

 meeting of international representatives that had been convened in the 

 Philippine Islands in February last had delegated the research in a 

 number of different branches of study to different Scientists or 

 Scientific Institutions located in widely separate localities, as, for 

 example : — • 



Hydrology to the Marine Laboratory at Batavia. 



Taxonomy and Systematics of Fish to Dr. S. L. Hora, the Director 

 of the Zoological Survey of India, at Benares, India. 



Fish Migration to Dr. Herklots in Hong Kong. 



Fishery Technique was to be studied in the Philippine Islands. 



Such an arrangement he considered to be quite impracticable. 



Dr. Carruthers (Visitor) pointed out that one could only study the 

 migrations of fish if one was in the same area as that in which the fish 

 were present. 



153 



