BRITISH, COLONIAL AND OTHER CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 599 



EXTRACT FROM INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY, 

 F. R. S., AT THE INTERNATIONAL FISHERIES EXHIBITION, LON- 

 DON, 1883. [ fl ] 



And now arises the question, Does the same reasoning apply to the 

 sea fisheries ? Are there any sea fisheries which are exhaustible, and, 

 if so, are the circumstances of the case such that they can be efficiently 

 protected ? I believe that it may be affirmed with confidence that, in 

 relation to our present modes of fishing, a number of the most impor- 

 tant sea fisheries, such as the cod fishery, the herring fishery, and the 

 mackerel fishery, are inexhaustible. And I base this conviction on 

 two grounds, first, that the multitude of these fishes is so inconceiv- 

 ably great that the number we catch is relatively insignificant ; and, 

 secondly, that the magnitude of the destructive agencies at work upon 

 them is so prodigious, that the destruction effected by the fisherman 

 cannot sensibly increase the death-rate. 



At the great cod-fishery of the Lofoden Islands, the fish approach 

 the shore in the form of what the natives call " cod mountains "- 

 vast shoals of densely-packed fish, 120 to 180 feet in vertical thickness. 

 The cod are so close together that Professor Sars tells us " the fisher- 

 men, who use lines, can notice how the weight, before it reaches the 

 bottom, is constantly knocking against the fish." And these shoals 

 keep coming in one after another for two months, all along the coast. 



A shoal of codfish of this kind, a square mile in superficial extent, 

 must contain, at the very least, 120,000,000 fish. 6 But it is an excep- 

 tionally good season if the Lofoden fishermen take 30,000,000 cod; 

 and not more than 70,000,000 or 80,000,000 are taken by all the Nor- 

 wegian fisheries put together. So that one fair shoal of all that 

 approach the coast in the season must be enough to supply the whole 

 of the codfish taken by the Norwegian fisheries, and leave a balance of 

 40,000,000 or 50,000.000 over. 



The principal food of adult cod appears to be herring. If we allow 

 only one herring to each codfish per diem, the cod in a square mile of 

 shoal will consume 840,000,000 herring in a week. But all the 

 Norwegian fisheries put together do not catch more than half the 

 number of herring. Facts of this kind seem to me to justify the 

 belief that the take of all the cod- and herring-fisheries, put to- 

 gether, does not amount to 5 per cent, of the total number of the 

 fish. But the mortality from other sources is enormous. From the 

 time the fish are hatched, they are attacked by other marine animals. 

 The great shoals are attended by hosts of dog-fish, pollack, cetaceans 

 and birds, which prey upon them day and night, and cause a destruc- 

 tion infinitely greater than that which can be effected by the imperfect 

 and intermittent operations of man. 



I believe, then, that the cod fishery, the herring fishery, the pilchard 

 fishery, the mackerel fishery, and probably all the great sea fisheries, 

 are inexhaustible; that is to say, that nothing we do seriously affects 

 the number of the fish. And any attempt to regulate these fisheries 

 seems consequently, from the nature of the case, to be useless. 



Published by William Clowes and Sons, London, 1R83. 



6 This allows over four feet in length for each fish, and a yard between it 

 and those above, below, and at the sides. 



