OCEANOGRAPHY AND FISHERIES 311 



the Russel equation as discussed above, and the dependence of this work 

 upon oceanographic inquiry is clear. 



Best exploitation clearly means that which will give the best and 

 most sustained yields, but in another way it may be signified by the term 

 "fish husbandry"— a concept which has recently emerged in respect of 

 marine stocks and which, at least, holds out a goal, even if we should be 

 ready to find that the end-result might not be as precisely analogous to 

 animal husbandry as our present speculative thinking imagines it. This 

 touches upon the possibility that there might be other direct interven- 

 tion in the stocks besides the fishing operations. Some speculative think- 

 ing has turned to the possibility of intervening in som.e of the basic 

 phenomena of the sea, and there has been experimentation in fertiliza- 

 tion. The realization of artificial upwellings, or of control of the move- 

 ments of marine stocks, will depend very largely on the work of the 

 oceanographers. 



5. Oceanography and Fishing Operations 



The dependence of fishing operations on weather and sea conditions 

 needs no discussion, either in respect of the effect of environmental 

 factors on the behaviour of the fish (which determines gear and method) 

 or of the effect of weather and sea surface conditions on the craft. The 

 point to make here is that fishermen need more aid from the oceanog- 

 raphers by way of predictions of these conditions. 



6. Discussion of the Relations between Oceanography and Fisheries 



There is really no need to m.ake a case for recognition of the im- 

 portance to a knowledge of any organism (or population of organisms) 

 of data concerning its environment, and as oceanography is defined here, 

 it is the science which will furnish the environmental data required by 

 the fishery biologist. I do not believe that it can be denied that in fact 

 fishery science can no more do without oceanography than agricultural 

 science can do without meteorology. But, whereas oceanography per 

 se has the entire marine hydrosphere as its field of enquiry, and the 

 limits are set only by the interest of the worker and the funds, equip- 

 ment and help available to him, fisheries oceanography is to be defined 

 strictly according to the area of interest and the kind of problem pre- 

 sented by the fishery biologist. 



It will be clearly seen from the preceding discussion that different 

 types of oceanographic information are required in the different situa- 

 tions found in fisheries. Different sets of elements are to be observed, 

 with different patterns of observation station, and different intensities 

 of observation at each station according to the nature of the fishery 

 problems. In the determination of general limits of distribution of a 



