vi PREFACE 



or forecasts in a satisfactory manner. At the same time a good 

 deal has been done, and the work is one in which amateurs all 

 round our shores can assist. Mr. Cunningham's book will, it is 

 hoped, serve as a help not only to trained investigators but to 

 those who are able to give some portion of their leisure to this 

 important subject. It is hoped also that it may help those who 

 are responsible for giving or withholding public funds to the 

 thorough investigation of marine fisheries, in forming a judgment 

 as to the nature of the problems which have to be solved. The 

 national importance of the sea-fisheries industry is recognized 

 by the legislature. But the right way of developing and directing 

 that industry, and indeed whether it is possible to do anything 

 to improve that industry, are questions which seem still to be 

 matters of doubt to all but the professed students of marine life 

 and its conditions. This book, together with the several volumes 

 of the journal of the Marine Biological Association and the 

 finely illustrated monograph by Mr. Cunningham on the common 

 sole, may be taken as setting forth the results of the work done 

 by the Marine Biological Association in the direction of con- 

 tributing to a better knowledge of sea-fishes and sea-fisheries. 

 That work has been done to a large extent by the aid of grants 

 from Her Majesty's Treasury, with which the Association has 

 been entrusted by the Government. The line of work pursued 

 has been necessarily limited by the funds at the disposal of the 

 Council of the Association. The results obtained are undoubt- 

 edly valuable ; at the same time I cannot let this opportunity 

 pass of stating that a larger and much more costly series of 

 investigations is necessary, and that nothing short of a physical 

 and biological survey of the North Sea and of the area within 

 the hundred-fathom line on our southern and western coasts can 

 yield the information as to the movements of marine food-fishes 

 and the distribution of fishing-grounds which is needful if we are 

 to deal intelligently with our sea-fisheries. This and the collec- 

 tion (even though costly) of statistical information as to the 

 capture of fish on specified fishing-grounds, which at the present 



