142 STUDIES IN INSECT LIFE, ETC. 



suggest are still a matter of debate. Whether 

 even the destruction has an appreciable effect 

 in the adult population of edible fish is even 

 more debatable. It does not seem to have 

 affected the herring, and we must never forget 

 the prodigious number of offspring given to 

 fish. 



The taking of immature fish is not in itself 

 uneconomic, unless by that means we so far 

 reduce the total number that the adult stock 

 begins to dwindle. Sardines are more valuable 

 than their adult form, the pilchard ; whitebait, 

 mainly composed of young sprats, with i to 20 

 per cent, of young herrings, fetch more in the 

 market than the parent form, and as long as 

 the adults exist in sufficient number to keep up 

 the stock of fry, sardine and whitebait fishing is 

 perfectly legitimate. 



I recently had occasion to lay before the 

 Chancellor of the Exchequer a summary of the 

 results that the Marine Biological Association, 

 acting as Agents for the Government in the 

 International Investigation of the North Sea, 

 have attained since the summer of 1902. 



The area which has been allotted to England 

 is, roughly speaking, the south-western part of 



