216 American Fisheries Society. 



The cultivation of flatfish, Pseudopleuronectes americanus 

 (Walb.) could be questioned in a similar manner with the ad- 

 ditional criticism that all the fish are taken from the spawning 

 grounds and would not have necessarily been captured otherwise. 

 At present the practice is simply to let these fish which are cap- 

 tured expressly for the purpose, spawn in large wooden tanks 

 and to liberate the fry at hatching, the only advantage possible 

 being that of protection of the incubating eggs. From whatever 

 value this may have must be deducted the losses incident to handling 

 both the ripe fish and the fry, as well as the fact that the fry are 

 generally deposited in a small area where they are more liable 

 to attack from their natural enemies, until they can scatter, than 

 would be the naturally spawned ones which at no time would 

 be expected to be so congregated in a small area. Further ex- 

 planation would be too nearly a repetition of the cod story so 

 it may be omitted in its entirety. In fact, similar views might 

 be expressed concerning nearly if not all marine species at pres- 

 ent cul'tivated. 



The quantities of practically all marine food fishes fluctuate 

 annually in most surprising numbers, as before noted, from 

 causes obviously not due to the activity of man, so that it be- 

 comes next to impossible to arrive at any definite conception 

 as to the value of such fish culture from a study of fishery statis- 

 tics even over long periods of time. Besides, other factors, in- 

 troduced by man himself further complicate and lower the value 

 of any conclusions so arrived at, such as the continual improve- 

 ments both in gear and methods, to say nothing of the difficulty 

 or impossibility of comparing statistics compiled in various ways. 



Nevertheless is there not some angle from which the ag- 

 gravating problem of marine fish culture may be more success- 

 fully attacked? The comparatively recent theories of certain 



00O::x:155,318,000. x=311 fish. 

 Cod landed in 1921: 



Large and market cod 52,364,437 pounds. 



Scrod 1,150,577 pounds. 



Total 53,515,014 pounds. 



Large and market cod together average 15 pounds apiece. Scrod average 1% 

 pounds apiece. 



Then there were landed 3,490,962 cod and 657,472 scrod. By proportion of 

 the 311 hatchery fish, 84 per cent were adults and 16 per cent (from the next 

 year) were scrod, or 261 and 50 fish respectively, that is: 261 x 15 + 50 x 1% = 

 approximately 4,003 pounds of cod as hatchery fish or under .008 of one per cent. 



