77 



experiments, hoping to discover new banks, as the U. S. Bureau of 

 Fisheries has recently done off the CA3'olinas. Less direct methods 

 have a] so proved ferti].e from this strndt^oiiit. For example, highly 

 productive cod grounds have been developed off Norway by deducing the 

 existence of spawning schools from the distribution of their eggs 

 floating at the surface of the water. And while it is certain that 

 the major fishing grounds off the Korth Atla.ntic coasts of ilorth 

 America and of Europe are already?- being exploited - so, too, off cur 

 North Pacifj.c coast - great possibilities of expansion still remain in 

 the Galf of Mexico, in the South Atlantic, in the eastern and western 

 Pacific, and in the Indian Ocean, as well as in Arctic and Antartic ,^-^. 

 seas. i ^ 



\ - 



The question of extension of grounds is, however, not a simple \ g' 



one of exploration, because expansion luight in certain cases prove \^ 

 detrimental to some of the most important species. If, for example, ^^^ 

 the wintering grounds of the American mackerel, of the Weakfish,.-'6f" ^i 

 the Scup, and of various other fishes that vanish from the eastern -^ 

 coast of North America during the winter, were to be mapped, and the ™ 

 fishing of the species extended throughout the season, it is question- 

 able whether the stocks would stand the added strain. 



To what extent, too, do grounds where cod, haddock, etc. are 

 little fished at present serve as reservoirs of supply for banks 

 fished more intensively because more accessible; and what protection, 

 if any, should they receive on this score? That banks do serve as 

 reservoirs for one another in this respect is certain, because when 

 sm.all grounds close to land are so fished out that it no longer pays 

 to fish there (as happens often, and sometimes very soon) they present- 

 ly recover if the fishermen abandon them for a term of years. In fact, 

 a power of rapid recuperation seems almost an invariable law in the 

 sea; any species, indeed, that did not possess this power would soon 

 vanish from the scene, fishing or no fishing, by so many dangers and 

 so constant are they all beset. 'What role in this recuperation is 

 played by imm.igration from surrounding grounds, what by local repro- 

 duction? In the case of the Pacific halibut this is a live question 

 today, and the answer to it will govern the regulations to be adopted. 

 Its solution can only be reached through a study of migration, and of 

 the factors determining the success of breeding, so that the Interna- 

 tional Fisheries Commission is governing its procedure accordingly. 



The possibility of discovering new fishes, or of mapping the 

 centers of abundance for species whose existence has long been known 

 but which have not been made the object of any regular fishery, be- 

 cause their abundance is not suspected, is closely associated with the 

 development of new grounds. One might hardly have expected that the 

 existence of a large and valuable food fish, in great abundance, and 

 close to the fishing ports of the eastern United States, would have 

 remained unsuspected until 1879. Such, however, was the history of 

 the Tile fish. While the first specimen of this species was brought 

 in by a fisherman, it needed the explorations of the Federal Bureau 

 of Fisheries to make its geographic distribution and abundance knowc , 

 and to introduce it to the market. Thanks to these efforts, the tj .'.f 

 fish has of late yielded much good food. And while history c?.n nardly 

 he expected to repeat itself in this spectacular way in the Wcrth 

 Atlantic, unlimited possibilities lor this sort of expanc-ion are sti'''. 



