Breder. — Marine Fish Culture. 211 



great quantities of fish larvae. However the truth of this proposi- 

 tion is by no means a proven fact. With these considerations in 

 mind the present paper has been penned and its single reason for 

 existence is the hope that a perusal of it will aid in the stimula- 

 tion of constructive thought in the minds of fish culturists in- 

 terested in the development of the marine hatchery. 



It is well to note here that the case of the older art of cul- 

 tivating lacustrine and fluvatilespawners is another matter, and 

 any criticism of its practice must, in almost all cases, be directed 

 against the efficiency or practicability of the technical methods 

 involved. If for example we select a given pond, known to con- 

 tain not a single individual specimen of certain desirable species, 

 and cause it to be stocked with the desired fish in such a manner 

 that the species is able to establish itself without injurious dis- 

 turbance to the previous balance of life in the pond and in suffi- 

 cient numbers to be worth the cost and trouble involved, the 

 effort may be counted a success. Simple observation is sufficient 

 to prove such a case, as all that can be criticised is, for example, 

 that a particular method of handling or incubating is open to im- 

 provement in one way or another. In the case of marine fish 

 culture, on the other hand, the underlying proposition may be 

 attacked ; for in the study of oceanic conditions such direct ob- 

 servation as is applicable to small bodies of fresh water is im- 

 possible, owing chiefly to the vastness of the scale of the open 

 sea. Therefore, to say after a few years spent in cultivating a 

 particular marine species, that a slight increase in the amounts 

 brought to a particular fish wharf furnishes evidence of the ef- 

 fort's success, is simply to ignore the vast and uncontrollable 

 forces that operate to make abundant or scanty the fishing of the 

 year. Each such factor is in itself of a magnitude sufficient to 

 dwarf by comparison the best known efforts of man in the culti- 

 vation of these fishes. Until nearly all of these factors are much 

 more thoroughly understood, the comparison of the fisher folks' 

 fluctuating fortunes from year to year must continue to mean 

 but comparatively little. Therefore, as previously explained, the 

 question here to be considered is not one of technical methods, 

 even as obviously bungling and crude as are some of the current 

 practices, but rather refers to the possibility of handling intelli- 

 gently and efficiently a problem of such dimensions with our 

 present knowledge of oceanic conditions, or rather, lack of it. 



