420 



NATURE 



[November 25, 1920 



It behoves the State, therefore, to look well into the 

 conservation of the stock upon which the prosperity 

 of the industry depends ; but it must be remembered 

 that the bulk of the fish landed by our fishixig vessels 

 is taken in extra-territorial waters which are accessible 

 to all nationalities alike. If, therefore, scientific 

 investigations point to the necessity or desirability of 

 regulations for the closure of certain areas of the sea 

 or of such measures for the increase of the stock of 

 fish or of the general bulk of the fisheries as trans- 

 plantation or artificial propagation, it is essential that 

 those measures should be adopted internationally in 

 order that the good which one nation is endeavouring 

 to do may not be undone by another nation which 

 refuses to co-operate. If we are to have international 

 regulations based upon the findings of science, those 

 findings must be internationally accepted, and the 

 simplest road to such general acceptance is co-of)era- 

 tion in the work. Moreover, the area to be covered 

 is so vast, the medium in which we are compelled to 

 \*ork is so obscure, the facts in the propagation and 

 lives of fish which we are called upon to correlate are 

 so many, and the study of most of them at the present 

 time is so little advanced, that no one country working 

 alone can hope to cover the whole field except at a 

 prohibitive cost or at a rate which Will leave the 

 solution of the main problems to future generations. 

 Therefore, combined international investigations are 

 essential, and to none are they more important than to 

 the greatest sea-fishing nation in the world. If we 

 are to have such international co-operation, I main- 

 tain it must be co-operation between Governments. 



The Scientific Aims of the Fisheries Department. 



Whatever opinion may be held as to the capacity of 

 a Department of the Government to conduct scientific 

 research, at any rate it is something that a Govern- 

 ment Department should be so firmly convinced of the 

 importance of such research that it insists on carrying 

 it out. The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries 

 had before the war advocated and partly embarked 

 upon a wide programme of investigation framed in 

 consultation with an Advisory Committee of persons 

 eminent in science. That programme was interrupted 

 by the war. It included wholehearted co-operation 

 with the International Council for the Exploration of 

 the Sea in its general programme, and in the par- 

 ticular parts of it in which this country was more 

 especially interested, and so much importance did the 

 Ministry attach to these investigations and to the co- 

 operation of our foreign colleagues that, alone of all 

 the belligerent nations. Great Britain continued 

 throughout the war to subscribe to the funds of the 

 Council in order that the organisation v^'hich it repre- 

 sented might be kept in being to facilitate the revival 

 of its work when conditions permitted. There is little 

 doubt that, but for the financial and moral assistance 

 of Great Britain, the International Council would 

 have come to an end. I am convinced that the Inter- 

 national Council will justify its existence ; and it is 

 interesting to observe that two new Powers, Spain 

 and Portugal, have recently announced their intention 

 of joining the organisation. 



I have urged as a general thesis that the Depart- 

 ment must carrv out scientific investigations or run 

 the risk of stultifying itself. I do not propose to 

 discuss individual researches, but only to state the 

 brqad questions to which the Department seeks an 

 answer. They are these : 



(i) How can the stock of fish be maintained at its 

 present level so tliat the prosperity of the fishermen 

 mav be preserved and the supply of food for the people 

 not be diminished? 



(2) Can the stock be increased by human endeavour 



NO. 2665, VOL. 106] 



while the fisheries continue to yield their present toll 

 — or even an increased toll — to human necessity? 



(3) Can we learn to foretell good and bad seasons 

 for this or that fishery? 



Having answered all or any of these questions, we 

 must be prepared to answer as regards each one of 

 them the further question : 



(4) In what measure is the application of the find. 

 ings of science practicable in existing circumstances? 



I think those questions present with fair accuracy 

 the positive aims of our investigations. I do not refer 

 here to that other aspect of our work which concerns 

 the utilisation of the fish when caught or to inves- 

 tigations affecting only inland and fresh-water 

 fisheries ; for the moment I am thinking only of 

 what may properly be described as marine investiga- 

 tions. But these investigations, or rather the motive 

 behind them, have also a negative aspect. The 

 Department must always be prepared to resist what 

 I may describe as panic proposals for legislation or 

 proposals advanced by interested persons who use 

 allege<l facts of natural history as a stalking-horse. " 

 I need not particularise too closely. Most of you are 

 aware of the outcry raised against the trawl on the 

 ground that it damaged the eggs of fishes on so-called 

 spawning-grounds, and how this allegation was dis- 

 posed of by the discovery of science that the eggs of 

 all the principal food-fishes of the sea, except the 

 herring, were pelagic, and could not, therefore, be 

 damaged bv the trawl. That instance alone is 

 sufficient to prove the importance to the Department, 

 which may be called upon to introduce or to criticise 

 legislative proposals for the regulation of fisheries, of 

 having an adequate scientific intelligence. 



The Relation of the Department to the Independent 

 Scientific Worker. 



These being the aims, broadly stated, of the Depart- 

 ment, does it claim for itself the whole field of 

 fisheries research, and does it seek to suppress inde- 

 pendent effort ? By no means. To me such a policy 

 is inconceivable. Provided that the Department is 

 itself supplied with funds for an adequate equipment 

 in both apparatus and personnel, it must welcome 

 the assistance of the independent worker, for the 

 work to be done is so great and the field of research 

 to be covered so vast that there cannot be too many 

 workers in it. 



Moreover, there is, I think, a perfectly clear and 

 obvious distinction to be drawn between investiga- 

 tions proper to the State and those which are more 

 properly confided to independent institutions. The 

 State's business is to conduct investigations which 

 are more or less expresslv directed to the solution of 

 clearly defined problems affecting the fishing industry, 

 the demand for the solution of which either has arisen 

 or can be foreseen. The function of the independent 

 worker is to add to the sum of our knowledge without 

 regard to the solution of any particular problem. The 

 line must not be drawn too fine. On one hand, 

 the Departmental staff must seek in the course of its 

 inquiries all the knowledge it can get; and I. for 

 one, hold that the Departmental scientific worker 

 should, so far as is practicable, be g^iven opportunities 

 from time to time to take up and follow up a line of 

 research of his own choosing in order that his vigour 

 and freshness of mind mav remain unimpaired. On 

 the other hand, the independent institution or individual 

 worker mav pronerlv be invited to take up a line of 

 investigation which the Department foresees may be 

 of importance, but has not the means or the time to 

 prosecute itself. In short, the Department may see 

 that such and such an institution or individual is 

 admirablv qualified for a particular piece of work, 



