SEA FISHERIES 155 



1901, and the German share of the North Sea 

 International Investigation, which is still going on. 



The want of some such body of trained men 

 of science to advise and control was greatly felt 

 in England in the initial stages of our own Antarc- 

 tic " Discovery/' The German Government have 

 also spent considerable sums on the Biological 

 Station in Heligoland, and make it an annual 

 allowance of about 1,000. 



Every member of the " Kommission " is an 

 active researcher into one or other of the in- 

 numerable unsolved problems of the seas. They 

 are in close contact and constant communica- 

 tion with one another ; they have the widest 

 liberty of action, and investigate what they 

 think most useful, and not what others consider 

 most practical ; finally, they have the great 

 encouragement of their recommendation being 

 not unfrequently adopted by those who frame 

 and administer the fishery laws. 



The American Commission, like the Kiel " Kom- 

 mission/' is not an administrative body, but 

 concerns itself with the acquisition and appli- 

 cation of knowledge concerning fisheries ; like 

 it, too, it is independent of official control. It 

 reports directly to Congress. It was established 



