A NEW PRINCIPLE OF AQUICULTURE AND TRANSPORTA- 

 TION OF LIVE FISHES. 



By A. D. MEAD, Ph. D., 

 Member Rhode Island Commission of Inland Fisheries. 



ESSENTIAL FEATURES AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE METHOD. 



The method and apparatus herein described as a novel and practical method 

 of fish culture have gradually developed through eleven years of continuous 

 experimentation at the marine station of the Rhode Island Commission of 

 Inland Fisheries. It may be said, indeed, that the method and the station have 

 developed together. The aim has been throughout to provide as simply as 

 possible the essential features of the natural environment, biological and physical, 

 for aquatic animals while kept in confinement, and to introduce as little as possible 

 the unnatural features which are frequently considered necessary in artificial 

 culture. Upon this principle there has been sought a feasible method of pro- 

 viding water agreeable to the particular species in regard to the various com- 

 ponent salts, well aerated but not over aerated, having the proper temperature, 

 density, and current, and containing appropriate food in available condition; 

 while providing at the same time for the elimination of waste products of animal 

 respiration, and avoiding the dangerous chemical and bacterial impurities 

 almost invariably present where the water is passed through systems of piston 

 pumps, closed conduits, and storage tanks, and is aerated by means of forced air. 



The first step in the development of the method was a very direct and 

 simple concession, namely, that of going to the ocean instead of trying to bring 

 the ocean into a house on land. The floating laboratory and hatchery was 

 therefore adopted as a feasible method of circumventing, if not surmounting, 

 many difficulties. 



During the first and second seasons of work it was clearly demonstrated 

 that the starfish {Asterias forbesii) could be reared in the course of the summer 

 (four months) from the larval stage to over 50 millimeters measured from 

 mouth to tip of arm (nearly twice the length of sexually mature specimens 

 captured in June, the breeding season, and therefore a year old), in cars of 



B. B. F. 1908— Pt 2— 6 76' 



