NATURE 361 
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1897. 
OUR MARKETABLE MARINE FISHES. 
The Natural History of the Marketable Marine Fishes 
of the British Islands. By J. T. Cunningham, M.A. 
Pp. xvi + 368, 2 maps, and numerous cuts. (London: 
Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1896.) 
HE great Fisheries Exhibition held in London in 
1883 gave a marked impulse to the study of our 
sea-fisheries, and drew the attention both of scientific 
men and of the more enlightened of the general public 
to the importance of the subject and to the necessity of 
endeavouring to “arrive at an accurate estimate of the 
causes which determine the movements and the varia- 
tions in abundance of the animals which produce the 
harvest of the sea.” The Marine Biological Association 
of the United Kingdom, founded shortly afterwards 
(1884), has done much during the last decade to trace out 
the life-histories and habits of many of our food fishes ; 
the scientific investigations of the Fishery Board for 
Scotland, and the researches carried on at Prof. 
M‘Intosh’s marine laboratory at St. Andrews, have done 
still more; and other public bodies and individuals 
round the coast have assisted in a less degree in collect- 
ing the information which has made possible such a 
book as the one before us. 
Mr. Cunningham, who has been employed since 
1887 as “naturalist” by the Marine Biological Asso- 
ciation at their Plymouth laboratory, produced some 
years ago a finely illustrated monograph on the 
common sole; and now, under the direction of 
the Council of the same body, he has prepared this 
work on our marketable marine fishes, with the view of 
bringing before the general reader, in a connected nar- 
rative form, the gist of the information contained in the 
numerous technical memoirs which have appeared from 
various laboratories during the last few years. It is 
generally agreed that the fisherman might with advantage 
know a great deal more than he does about the objects 
of his search, but there are some of us who think that at 
the present juncture what is most required is an educated 
public opinion. It is probably as important for the future 
of fisheries investigation and improvement, and of just 
legislation in regard to the fisheries, that the general 
public should have opportunities of learning and realising 
the truth in regard to the habits and life-histories of food 
fishes, and the inter-relations of animals in the sea, as it 
is that the fisherman himself should be instructed in such 
matters. In addition to public lectures, by competent 
authorities, and the establishment of technical fisheries 
museums, the publication of books such as the present 
one, and the larger work which we understand Prof. 
M‘Intosh is preparing, should not only prove useful to 
those who are, or ought ¢o de, interested in fishery 
matters, either for profit or from the legislative point of 
view, but will serve as a guide in forming opinions on 
those fishery questions which have now to be discussed 
and decided by County Councils and Committees for 
Technical Instruction, by Conservancy and other Boards, 
in Law Courts and in the House of Commons. 
The Marine Biological Association has been aided by 
NO. 1425, VOL. 55] 
large grants from Her Majesty’s Treasury on the under- 
standing that special attention should be directed to the 
investigation of sea-fish and sea-fisheries, and the present 
volume will naturally be taken as stating the general 
conclusions arrived at by Mr. Cunningham, the member 
of the staff especially charged with the fishery investiga- 
tion, both from his own work and the consideration of 
the work of other naturalists at various points around the 
British coast. Under these circumstances it is to be 
regretted that Mr. Cunningham has not made more use 
than appears in his book of the statistics and other local 
investigations of the Lancashire Sea-Fisheries Com- 
mittee. Most of his statements are taken from observa- 
tions made at Grimsby and at Plymouth; but the Irish 
Sea forms an English fishing area second only in import- 
ance to the North Sea, and from which examples might 
well have been quoted. Even in the appendix, dealing 
specially with the fishing grounds of the British Islands, 
the Irish Sea is conspicuous by its absence, and no re- 
ference is made either to the “inshore” or “offshore” 
Lancashire trawling-grounds. 
Prof. Ray Lankester, as President of the Marine Bio- 
logical Association, introduces the book with a preface in 
which he states as his opinion 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 intelli- 
gently with our sea-fisheries.” With that ‘opinion we 
heartily concur. It is practically what the present writer 
urged in a presidential address to Section D of tke 
British Association in 1895, when he said... “it 
would be a very wise action, in the interests of the 
national fisheries, for the Government to fit out an 
expedition, in charge of two or three zoologists and 
fisheries experts, to spend a couple of years in exploring 
more systematically than has yet been done, or can 
otherwise be done, our British coasts from the Lamin- 
arian zone down to the deep mud.” I may now add that 
in such a scheme I should vo¢ omit the Irish Sea—a 
natural sea-fisheries district, with breeding grounds and 
feeding grounds, estuaries, and open sea, great expanses 
of shallow banks, and coasts where you can go “ from 
the Laminarian zone down to the deep mud,” at eighty 
fathoms, in about twelve miles. 
Mr. Cunningham’s book is divided into two parts. 
Part I. is general, and deals with the history of 
fisheries investigations, the general characters and dis- 
tribution of marine fishes, their methods of repro- 
duction and their development, their growth, migration, 
food, and habits; and finally a discussion of practical 
methods for increasing the supply of fish. Part II. 
is special, and takes up the history of particular 
fishes arranged according to their families, from the 
“Herrings” to the “Suckers.” Part I. is interesting 
reading ; Part II. is more the work of reference in which 
to look up the details of certain species. The interesting 
story of Sars’ discovery in 1864 and 1865, of the floating 
eggs of the cod, haddock, and mackerel in Norway, 
and of M‘Intosh’s important work in Scotland, of 
the work of the Kiel Commission in Germany, and of 
the Fishery Board for Scotland, are all given in 
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