304 EIGHTH PACIFIC SCIENCE CONGRESS 



well be drawn to the confusion which they create, especially since they 

 do not offer us any alternative correlative of limnology. 



Oceanography is used by us to signify the study of the oceans in 

 respect of themselves as water masses and of the biota which inhabit 

 them; if not qualified, as it is in expressions such as 'fisheries biology', 

 it is a pure science with no limitations upon the range or detail of the 

 subject matter of its enquiry. A qualifying term, such as "fishery", 

 signifies an orientation of the enquiries and a limitation of the field, 

 and not a specialized extension; thus, fisheries oceanography is that in- 

 vestigation of the physico-chemical and biotic properties of the oceans 

 required by fishery science— it does not mean oceanography which has 

 swallowed fisheries research! 



2. General Consideration 



In a general way we may say that oceanography holds a relationship 

 to fisheries corresponding to that which meteorology holds to agricul- 

 ture. But we must go further and describe it also as the 'soil-science' 

 of fisheries. These two aspects were discussed by Tait, in his Auckland 

 lectures, from the points of view of physical and chemical properties 

 of the sea, respectively, in relation of fishes. The more general, as well 

 as more particular aspects of relations of aquatic organisms to the phys- 

 ical and chemical factors of their environment, have been described 

 in the new voluminous literature of ecology. In this paper I wish to 

 make a plea, both for a special fisheries view of these relations and, at 

 the same time, for further and more detailed investigations along what 

 might be described as the classical approach to animal physiology and 

 ecology. 



The programme of fishery biology traverses, in a general sense, six 

 principal phases, a brief description of which I quote from a recent 

 paper I presented to the General Fishery Council for the Mediterranean. 



"Firstly, if the area in which the biologist is working is virgin a 

 survey must be made to determine the general characteristics of the 

 area and of its fish stocks; the principal compositional features of the 

 stocks must be described. For most of the present fishable areas informa- 

 tion such as this has been accumulated in the course of fishing opera- 

 tions and from work in marine biology; in such cases, a late starting 

 programme in fishery biology must first collate all such information. 



"Secondly, the general features of the stocks of the species to be 

 investigated must be determined. The species must be correctly iden- 

 tified, and the continuity and taxonomic homogeneity of these stocks 

 must be examined. This work may or may not require the refined 



