NAL Rie 
THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 1904. 
THAMES ESTUARINE FISHERIES. 
Kent and Essex Sea Fisheries Committee. Report on 
‘the Sea Fisheries and Fishing Industries of the 
Thames Estuary. Prepared by Dr. James Murie. 
Ordered to be Printed at Meeting of the Kent and 
Essex Sea Fisheries Committee, December 7, 1903. 
Part i. Pp. 250. (London: Waterlow Bros. and 
‘Layton, Ltd., 1903.) 
HIS report has been prepared primarily for the in- 
formation of the Kent and Essex Sea Fisheries 
Committee by a subcommittee of that body appointed 
*“to investigate the fisheries and recommend such 
steps as they may from time to time think best for their 
development.”’ 
The subcommittee’s idea as to the scope of the re- 
port which they asked one of their members, Dr. 
Murie, to draw up was to select some typical fishing 
station and report on the conditions there, ‘‘ instead 
of merely outlining what should be the basis of facts 
to be acquired at each special station.’’ Leigh, in 
Essex, an important fishing centre on the north shore 
of the Thames Estuary, was the locality selected for 
the purpose, the selection being doubtless influenced 
by the fact that at Leigh resided Dr. Murie, who, 
besides being an active member of the committee, is 
an accomplished zoologist, and has long been in close 
touch with the fisheries of his neighbourhood. Dr. 
Murie was accordingly appointed to report on the 
fisheries of Leigh. He, however, found it necessary 
t> extend the original plan of the work and to make 
it more general. 
agreed as to deficiency of trustworthy information in 
regard to the conditions under which the various 
fisheries in the district are conducted. Further, as 
these conditions are dependent on certain biological 
data, it was necessary that some account of the natural 
history and inter-relations of the marine animals in 
the district should be presented. The present volume 
(part i. of the report) is devoted solely to the marine 
biology of the Thames Estuary. 
gard to the fisheries themselves and a discussion of 
their economics are reserved for part ii. 
Although deep-sea trawlers work from Ramsgate, 
Dover, &c., the main interest of the Kent and Essex 
district centres in the estuarine fisheries, that is to 
say, in the operations of shrimpers, whitebaiters, &c., | 
and in the great shell-fish industries. In such an area 
the interests of one class of fishermen are sometimes | 
at variance with those of another class. In consider- 
ing the claims of one against the other, it is necessary 
to bring a knowledge of biology to bear on the sub- 
ject; it is not enough to weigh the evidence of the 
fishermen themselves. 
In this volume Dr. Murie gives a very readable and 
scientifically accurate account of the natural history 
of the marine animals inhabiting the Thames Estuary. 
This part is more than a mere fauna of the area, for 
- the aninials are considered éspecially in their relation 
~to the fisheries. The geological origin of the estuary 
NO. 1799, VOL. 69] 
The subcommittee was unanimously | 
| degrees of ripeness in a fish. 
Information in re- | 
and the general physical and biological conditions 
obtaining therein are first described. Dr. Murie then 
proceeds to explain the influence of tides and winds 
and of North Sea currents in determining the drift of 
fish food and fish eggs, and hence the distribution of 
the fishes, concluding the section by remarking that 
““a paucity or abundance of fish is indissolubly linked 
with the less appreciable presence or otherwise of 
minor (often microscopic) life extant—not, therefore, 
as frequently emphasised, solely owing to objectionable 
instruments or methods of capture.’’ 
In the next section are described the rise in the 
fisheries of Leigh and the various changes which have 
taken place in methods of fishing from early times up 
to the present day in that locality. Then follows a 
large section on natural history proper, comprising all 
the known data which are of interest from a fisheries 
standpoint with respect to the various forms of animal 
life found in the estuary, a list which begins with 
porpoises and whales and ends with shrimps and 
prawns. 
The author deals in no amateur fashion with these 
topics. He is thoroughly acquainted with the literature 
of fish and fisheries, both of early and of recent date. 
He has, for instance, made good use of such reposi- 
tories of research as the scientific blue-books of the 
Scottish Fishery Board and the Journals of the Marine 
Biological Association. His own observations on the 
distribution, rate of growth, spawning and seasonal 
fluctuations of the food-fishes, molluscs, and Crustacea 
are of considerable value. On such matters as the 
location of the spawning places of the flat fishes, he 
seems inclined to lend too ready an ear to the opinions 
of fishermen, although it is not shown that the latter 
are capable of distinguishing with sufficient accuracy 
A fish with a “ full 
roed ”’ ovary may be a long way in time and space 
from actual spawning. Even Dr. Murie himself does 
not seem to be very clear on this point. . When he 
speaks of a fish the ovary of which was in the “ pinky 
vascular stage ’’ as being in ‘‘ a moderately advanced 
stage,’’ we are not satisfied with so vague a descrip- 
tion; we require a more definite criterion of ripeness 
for scientific purposes. 
Probably few experts will agree that the evidence 
which Dr. Murie adduces of spawning of flounders in 
brackish water is adequate. The presence in a given 
locality of fuil roed females, and later of flounder 
larve half an inch long, does not appear to prove, or 
even to suggest, that flounders spawn in that locality. 
In regard to the rate of growth of various food-fishes, 
the author furnishes some interesting data, but he has 
not dealt with these in a sufficiently detailed way to 
render them of much use as a contribution to the sub- 
ject. He has not adopted, as other modern investi- 
gators have, Petersen’s method of separating the fishes 
into annual groups or generations by the principle of 
the mid-size. 
Altogether the book contains a mass of valuable and 
detailed information respecting the marine biology of 
this important estuary. Such information is an in- 
dispensable preliminary to an intelligent grasp of those 
practical problems to which the attention of the com- 
Ge 
