NA TURE 



[July 25, 1907 



in the case of the Garland's work under the Scotch 

 Fishery Board. This scientific report gave an account of 

 beam-trawl fishing ; the kinds and proportions of saleable 

 and unsaleable fishes ; the proportions of the living and 

 the dead and of the immature fishes ; the development 

 and growth of the food-fishes ; and the universal presence 

 of floating eggs in all the ordinary food-fishes, except the 

 herring and the wolf-fish. It showed that no noteworthy 

 destruction of the spawn of food-fishes occurred, and that 

 the small or immature fishes from the deeper waters con- 

 sisted chiefly of dabs and long-rough dabs. It gave the 

 distribution of the food-fishes on the various grounds, and 

 the relative condition of the districts ; a list of unsaleable 

 fishes (chiefly frog-fishes) : the fauna of the trawling 

 grounds — surface and bottom ; the food of fishes ; tempera- 

 ture of the air ; temperature of the surface and bottom 

 water, and other points, including the satisfactory condition 

 of the fishes themselves, and the effects of frequent hauls of 

 the trawl on the same ground. It demonstrated that the 

 inshore was dependent on the offshore for the supply of 

 eggs and young of various fishes ; that a gradual passage 

 of the eggs and young shorewards, and of the growing 

 fishes at a later stage seawards, took place. Further, that 

 in a bay like .St. .'\ndrews Bay, constant and long-continued 

 trawling did not exhaust the fishes, and that the men in- 

 variably kept the same line (by fixed land-marks) in their 

 operations, a feature which at once disposed of the fears 

 as to " trawling out." \o interference with well-conducted 

 modes of fishing was suggested. 



The scientific report further recommended the establish- 

 ment of experimental sea-fish hatcheries, the closure of 

 certain areas for experiments, and the keeping of records 

 by all fishermen of the ground, weather, depth, and 

 nature of the fishes. Statistics were put on an improved 

 footing in Scotland. The Fishery Board for Scotland re- 

 ceived increased powers and funds, and carried out the 

 trawling experiments in the closed areas, but it did not 

 follow the advice given as to ship, staff, apparatus, and 

 regularity of work. The Board proceeded further to close 

 other areas, such as the Moray Firth, but upon data 

 which science rejects. The Parliamentary Committee of 

 1893 followed, but the scientific evidence as to diminution 

 was founded on data supplied by the Scotch Fishery Board, 

 and, unfortunately, the faulty method of handling the 

 statistics misled all as to the supposed decrease of flat- 

 fishes. Carefully checked subsequently, the w'ork of 

 the Board's ship Garland showed that no increase of fishes 

 had occurred in the closed areas, that the fish-fauna at 

 the end of the ten years' experiments stood very much 

 as at the beginning, and that, on the whole, the marine 

 food-fishes were able to withstand man's interference. 

 Other committees, such as that on the " Immature Fishes 

 Bill " and the " Ichthyological Committee," were also 

 dealt with. Sea-fish hatching was .shown to be incon- 

 clusive up to date, whilst the enormous numbers of young 

 fishes in the sea rendered the procedure of doubtful 

 advantage. 



The whole history of the subject, including the most 

 recent work and statistics in America, Canada, Japan, 

 Newfoundland, Norway, St. .Andrews Bay, and else- 

 where, showed that it was neither scientific nor practical 

 to doubt the permanence of the British marine food-fishes 

 or the marvellous resources of nature in the sea. Even 

 the lobster (a form supposed to be diminishing) had been 

 shown by Prof. Prince, of Canada, to be able to hold its 

 own in the most rigorously fished district of western Nova 

 Scotia. If such a species can do so, how much more 

 the food-fishes, which survive notwithstanding the distrust 

 of the public and the fishermen, and the fears of the 

 learned as to man's upsetting the balance of nature. 



Lecture II. 

 In taking a broad survey of the reasons whiclT prompted 

 our country to join in the International Investigation of 

 the Sea, it would appear that the main object was the 

 prospective- benefit to the British fisheries, though the 

 testing of the antagonistic views, viz. of the " Resources 

 of the Sea' and the " Impoverishment of the Sea," may 

 have influenced the decision. The lines upon which such 

 work should be carried out had been laid before the 



isO 1Q69, VOL. ;6] 



Ichthyological Committee, and subsequently published.' 

 It is difficult to ascertain what the British investigators 

 expected to discover, but, briefly, one of their tasks was 

 to find out " whether the quantity and consumption of fish 

 taken from the North .Sea and neighbourhood are in proper 

 proportion to the production." To this the observers added 

 the exploration of the small fish grounds. The ambiguity 

 on the subject is apparent from the mention of the 

 " publication of annual results," of " discoveries of prac- 

 tical importance to the fisheries," and of " recommend- 

 ations for international action." 



One department, viz. hydrography, made itself prominent 

 from the beginning, but a. study of its work in the 

 German ship Pommcrania in 1872, of the efforts to con- 

 nect temperatures with the captures of fishes in 18S4, of 

 the observations of the Scotch Board in the eastern and 

 western w\iters of North Britain, of the International 

 Survey of the North Sea (in which the same Board joined) 

 in i8q3-4, gave reasons for reserve. The present results 

 of hydrography in connection with the fisheries in the inter- 

 national investigations emphasise this reserve. 



\Ve now turn to the work of the senior naturalists 

 whose efforts were to be directed to the elucidation of 

 fisheries' problems, such as the present condition of the 

 food-fishes of the North Sea, and to prove the 

 "impoverishment of the sea." Briefly, the Marine Bio- 

 logical As.sociation, in the southern area of the North Sea, 

 announces that " facts have been obtained upon which 

 a proper understanding of the yield of the sea must in 

 future be based," and that this pregnant statement rests 

 on the results of experiments with marked plaice. From 

 the numbers subsequently captured three important con- 

 clusions are drawn, viz. : — " (i) the migrations of the 

 species, (2) the rate of growth, and (3) the intensity of 

 fishing." Marking of plaice has long been carried out by 

 the .Scotch Board, by the Americans with cod, and by the 

 Germans and Dutch in the international work also on the 

 plaice. A simple method of tattooing is suggested as more 

 likely to place the fishes (plaice) on a normal footing 

 than the present somewhat rough one of silver wire and 

 buttons. The data are yet too few and the time too short 

 for a trustworthy conclusion, and British and German 

 observers disagree. The second head has long been 

 studied, and the present observations relate rather to the 

 proportional rate of growth in connection with locality. 

 Thus plaice transplanted from the Horn reef to the Dogger 

 shoal grew faster than would have been the case had they 

 remained, but this increase was exceeded in the Scager 

 Rack. Transplantation is thus suggested by Dr. Garstang, 

 as the Danes have done for some years in the Lim Fjord. 

 So far as experience goes, however, there is little fear of 

 suitable areas off our open shores being left unoccupied by 

 such fishes as the plaice. The third head is apparently con- 

 sidered important by the Marine Biological .Xssociation, 

 the percentage captured in the offshore waters being 20 

 and in the inshore 10, so that it is concluded that a limit 

 has been reached in sea-fishing, and that it is no longer 

 an uncertain pursuit (in the hands of the association). But 

 this conclusion is not supported by long experience in 

 St. Andrews Bay, nor by the history of the plaice-fishery 

 of the Cattegat, nor by the work on the old trawling 

 grounds on the east coast. The international observers, 

 again, differ amongst themselves, the number experimented 

 with being too few for a conclusion so important. 



In the northern section hydrographical work is again 

 too prominent, and surprise was felt that a new and 

 original series of fisheries' investigations, based on a well- 

 considered plan, was not forthcoming. The statistics of 

 commercial trawling vessels and their treatment have little 

 real bearing on the present inquiry, even though they are 

 portioned out in Fulton's squares, yet it is asserted "that 

 by these methods, if we only had statistics enough, we 

 should mark down accurately for each fish the time 

 of the coming at every position in the North .Sea, and 

 then weaving all the facts together show the route followed 

 in the migration of any species." A tribute may be paid 

 to this enthusiasm, but the Importance of all these pages 

 of tables and curves is doubted. 



A contribution of a different type is that of the Scotch 

 ' " A Second Deca-'e of th= Sea-Fisheries," 1903. 





