THE CULTIVATION OF THE TURBOT. 



By R. ANTHONY, D. Sc, 

 Assistant Director, Laboratory oj the Museum of Natural History {Paris) at St. V aast-la-H ougue. 



[Translated from the French] 



The question of marine pisciculture has been for some thirty years a subject 

 of important concern to naturahsts. The present crisis in marine fisheries and 

 the necessities involved seem to cause an increase of efforts in this direction. 



The term marine pisciculture serv^es to designate either natural pisciculture 

 or artificial pisciculture (piscifacture) , both public and private or industrial. 



The so-called natural pisciculture is the simple operation of making the 

 young edible fishes hatched at sea enter marine ponds or artificial reservoirs 

 communicating with the sea, there to be fattened and then captured for market 

 when they have attained a commercial size. Practiced for centuries, its develop- 

 ment did not demand any previous knowledge of the phenomenon of repro- 

 duction of the fishes. But it does demand the realization of natural conditions 

 which are very special as to localities and surroundings, a thing which pre- 

 vents it from becoming general. 



To this pisciculture, rudimentary to a certain extent, may be opposed the 

 so-called artificial pisciculture, or piscifacture, thus named because the eggs 

 and larvae are obtained in captivity. 



Artificial pisciculture may pursue either of two aims: It may be a public 

 enterprise, an undertaking of the government, as a government alone can enter 

 upon such an operation, its aim then the repopulation of the sea; on the other 

 hand, it may be a strictly private enterprise to inaugurate an industry which 

 would pursue the aim of breeding certain edible sea fishes in captivity for profit. 



The first attempts at artificial pisciculture were pubHc undertakings; the 

 aim was to attain the breeding of edible shore fishes in captivity, to have the 

 eggs hatch, and to deposit the larvse at a point on the coast where a decrease 

 of these fishes had been noticed. The young fishes were released in the sea 



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