28 president's address. 



reappearance in quantity of this valuable fish upon the old fishing grounds 

 off Nantucket and Long Island, at about 100 miles from the coast to 

 the east and south-east of New York. It is believed that the tile-fish 

 IS now abundant enough to maintain an important fishery, which will 

 add an excellent food-fish to the markets of the United States. It is 

 easily caught with lines at all seasons of the year, and reaches a 

 length of over three feet and a weight of 40 to 50 pounds. During 

 July 1915 the product of the fishery was about two and a half million 

 pounds weight, valued at 55,000 dollars, and in the first few months 

 of 1917 the catch was four and a half million pounds, for which the 

 fishermen received 247,000 dollars. 



We can scarcely hope in European seas to add new food-fishes to our 

 markets, but much may be done through the (^-operation of scientific 

 investigators of the ocean with the Administrative Departments to bring- 

 about a more rational conservation and exploitation of the national 

 fisheries. 



Earlier in this address I referred to the pioneer work of the dis- 

 tinguished Manx naturalist. Professor Edward Forbes. There are 

 many of his writings and of his lectures which I have no space to 

 refer to which have points of oceanographic interest. Take this, for 

 example, in reference to our national sea fisheries. We find him in 

 1847 writing to a friend : ' On Friday night I lectured at the Eoyal 

 Institution. The subject was the bearing of submarine researches and 

 distribution matters on the fishery question. I pitched into Govern- 

 ment mismanagement pretty strong, and made a fair case of it. It 

 seems to me that at a time when half the country is starving we are 

 utterly neglecting or grossly mismanaging great sources of wealth 

 and food. . . . Were I a rich man I would make the subject a hobby, 

 for the good of the country and for the better proving that the tnie 

 interests of Government are those linked with and inseparable from 

 Science.' We must still cordially approve of these last words, while 

 recognising that our Government Department of Fisheries is now being 

 organised on better lines, is itself carrying on scientific work of national 

 importance, and is, I am happy to think, in complete sympathy with 

 the work of independent scientific investigators of the sea and desirous 

 of closer co-operation with University laboratoiies and biological 

 stations. 



During recent years one of the most important and most frequently 

 discussed of applications of fisheries investigation has been the pro- 

 ductivity of the trawling grounds, and especially those of the North 

 Sea. It has been generally agreed that the enormous increase of fishing 

 power during the last forty years or so has reduced the number of 

 large plaice, so that the average size of that fish caught in our home 



