November 24, 1923] 



NA TURE 



775 



inadequately equipped for work at sea, and the bulk 

 of the sea work falls on England and Scotland. It is 

 particularly regrettable that Norway, to which, in 

 the person of Dr. Einar Lea, is entrusted the leader- 

 ship of the herring investigations, has not yet been 

 able again to equip a ship for deep-sea research. The 

 herring investigations at their present stage involve, 

 to a considerable extent, the application to the 

 investigation of North Sea herrings of the methods 

 employed by Hjort and Lea in their investigations 

 of the Norwegian herrings. With a view to the 

 standardisation of these methods, English and 

 Scottish naturalists are studying under Hjort and 

 Lea at Christiania. 



The Cod and Haddock Committee is under the 

 convenership of Dr. E. S. Russell ; but the work of 

 direction is divided between England and Scotland, 

 the latter being responsible, through Dr. Bowman, for 

 dealing with haddock material and the former with 

 cod. 



The proposal to form a North Atlantic Committee 

 was approved after a lengthy debate in a special 

 committee of the whole Council. On one hand it 

 was felt that the committees were already danger- 

 ously numerous, that the fishes which would come 

 under examination by the North Atlantic Committee 

 were mainly those actually being investigated by 

 other committees, and that a further extension of 

 the principle of geographical division of work already 

 accepted in the formation of the Committee of the 

 Atlantic Slope and the Baltic Committee created the 

 xisk of redundancy unless it could be shown that the 

 area to be studied was, in respect of some at least of 

 its features, self-contained, and presented phenomena 

 peculiar to itself. It was more particularly on the 

 last-named ground that the Danish Commission in a 

 memorandum submitted to the Council supported 

 their proposal, which had for its principal object the 

 study of the fisheries of Iceland and Faroe. They 

 pointed out that the Icelandic fisheries in particular, 

 and the physical conditions governing those fisheries, 

 presented peculiarities which merited individual 

 study. They summarised their argument in the 

 following terms : "In regard to fishery biology as 

 well as hydrography the various parts of the Icelandic 

 area are extremely dissimilar. There is in fact a 

 greater difference in this respect between South and 

 East Iceland than between South Iceland and the 

 Faroes, or, indeed, between South Iceland and 

 Ireland." 



The Council eventually resolved to form a North 

 Atlantic Committee for research north of the latitude 

 of Rockall, and, while instructing the Committee to 

 commence work in the area suggested in the Danish 

 Commission's memorandum, urged it to keep in mind 

 the importance of extending its area of observations 

 particularly to the eastern and northern parts of the 

 Norwegian Sea. The Committee was further in- 

 structed to arrange its programme in consultation 

 with the other committees concerned. The pro- 

 gramme adopted, in accordance with this instruction, 

 provides for the hydrographical and biological 

 investigation of the region, with special reference to 

 cod, haddock, halibut, plaice and herring. The 

 leadership of the work was entrusted to Dr. Johs. 

 Schmidt. The greater part of the sea work wUl be 

 carried out by means of the Dana, but France will make 

 provision for observations by means of cruisers 

 stationed at Iceland, and Scotland will conduct 

 hydrographical-biological cruises from the west of 

 Scotland to the Faroes. England will assist Avith 

 fishery statistics and measurements. 



An interesting discussion arose in connexion with 

 the work of the Statistical Committee, of which Prof. 



NO. 2821, VOL. I 12] 



D'Arcy Thompson is permanent chairman. The 

 British delegates were instructed to endeavour to 

 secure the general adoption of more effective and, 

 in particular, more uniform statistical methods, such 

 as are in use in Great Britain. Owing to the lack of 

 uniformity of method, it is at present most difficult to 

 present in the Bulletin statistics which afford a true 

 indication of the actual condition of the fisheries in 

 a given region or part of a region, and of the variations 

 of the stock from year to year. For example, different 

 countries while using the same regional nomenclature 

 have different conceptions of the limits of the regions, 

 and the majority of them are not able to give any 

 accurate idea of the precise locality fished or of the 

 amount of fish of any given species — or of fish of all 

 kinds — taken per unit of time ; e.g., the quantity of 

 fish taken in a given area in loo hours' fishing. 

 Statistics which do not present a picture of the 

 distribution of the stock in time and space are of 

 little value to the scientific worker, and it is for 

 scientific rather than for commercial purposes that 

 the International Council should collect and publish 

 statistics. It was readily agreed by the Statistical 

 Committee that uniformity must be secured in the 

 matter of the designation of statistical regions and 

 areas ; but it was impossible in the time at the dis- 

 posal of the Committee to arrive at unanimity as to 

 the limits by which the regions should be defined. 

 This question was accordingly referred to a special 

 sub-committee which was requested to report to the 

 committee before the next meeting of the Council. 

 The question of getting detailed statistics of locality 

 of capture, i.e. fishing ground, and of the relation of 

 fishing power to catch of fish, proved to be one of ways 

 and means, and the reply of most countries was that 

 they had not the staff for the collection of such 

 statistics on the scale adopted in Great Britain. 

 Eventually it was agreed that each country should 

 endeavour to collect statistics from some of its vessels 

 according to the methods employed in England, and 

 an undertaking was given on behalf of the English 

 Department, being the best equipped for the purpose, 

 that the Department would for the present work up 

 the data if sent to them. 



The work of the Committee of the Atlantic Slope 

 continues to be under the leadership of Dr. Edouard 

 le Danois. The English Department is not yet in a 

 position to take part in the sea work, but it is hoped 

 that the Marine Biological Association will continue 

 the assistance which it has given in the past. 



A memorandum was submitted to the Council by 

 Prof. Otto Pettersson and Commodore C. F. Drechsel 

 advocating an international expedition to study the 

 system of currents of the great oceans, with reference 

 especially, to quote from the memorandum, to the 

 following questions : 



" (i) Whether the changes we obsir\i,' in tlic lish 

 life of our seas correspond with the changes we observe 

 in the current system of the ocean ; and 



" (2) Whether these changes are of periodic nature." 



The authors of the memorandum, which gave rise 

 to a most interesting debate, urged that advantage 

 should be taken of the fact that the late Prince of 

 Monaco's yacht Hirondelle was for sale to secure and 

 equip this vessel and to employ it for four years in an 

 investigation of the questions above stated. They 

 invited the Council to support the proposal, which 

 they desired to submit, with the authority of the 

 Council, to the governments of the civilised world, in 

 the hope of securing the co-operation of all these 

 governments in the enterprise. They pointed out 

 that if the proposal secured world-wide support the 

 actual cost to any individual country would be com- 

 paratively small. In the debate which took place 



