370 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.— D. 



scheme making owners responsible legally for supplying correct statistics, for 

 wij/hout such it would appear impossible to attain any final conclusion on this 

 problem of fluctuations, whicli is of crucial importance to the fishing industry. 



(6) Mr. H. G. Maurice, C.B., supported the present system of collecting 

 statistics. The Ministry employed whole-time collectors in all the principal 

 ports, whose sole business it was to collect fishing statistics, and he did not 

 think any different results would be obtained were the owners to take the matter 

 in hand. The fishing trade was, he added, always virging the Ministry to 

 investigate, and then when they did so and results were given they were told 

 they were wrong. He might allude to proposals relating to plaice which had 

 recently been made by the Ministry as a result of investigations and which were 

 turned down by the trade 



(c) Prof. J. Stanley Gardiner, F.R.S.. suggested that if the Ministry and 

 the industry came together in this matter they would get statistics which were 

 more economical, more accurate, and more such as the industry required. 



(d) Dr. E. S. Russell admitted that natural fluctuations occured in all 

 great fisheries, but he could not agree with Mr. Robertson that the effect of 

 steam trawling was negligible. He brought forward evidence based upon North 

 Sea data to drive home his point. 



(c) Prof. James Johnstone admitted that some effect might result from 

 intensive fishing, but believed that his investigations in the Irish Sea pointed 

 to the considerably greater importance of natural periodic fluctuations. 



(/) IMr. B. Storrow and Mr. A. Robins also contributed to the discussion. 



11, Discussion on The Sea Fisheries, with Special Reference to the 

 Herring. 



(a) Opener : Mr. George Hall. 



(i) Introductory remarks of a general character. 



(ii) Reference to the universe and the many relative questions crying out 

 for research and solution. 



(iii) Narrative of the speaker's connection with the herring industry, in the 

 course of which particulars are given of the nature of the problems which 

 have presented themselves, and to which, hitherto, there has been no satisfactory 

 answer. 



(iv) Attention directed to the condition of things brought about by our 

 ignorance of the causes of the varying circumstances under which the industry 

 has been operated. 



(v) Suggestions as to the direction in which the assistance of the industry 

 might prove effective, with particular reference to a system of co-operation 

 between the industry and science in supplying information respecting the 

 following matters : (a) Place of catch, (&) time of catch, (c) state of tide. 

 (f7) state of weather, (c) conditions of water, (/) means of catch, (g) method 

 of catch, (/i) description of catch under the headings of — (i) composition, 

 (ii) predominating characteristics, (iii) exceptional characteristics, (iv) measure- 

 ments. 



(vi) Favourable results anticipated from complete knowledge of the herring 

 and its haunts. 



(h) Mr. David T. Jones, C.B.E. 



The phases through which the herring fishery has passed are (1) the period 

 when the bounty system was in operation ; (2) the introduction of the ' Zulu ' 

 type of boat, which possessed excellent seagoing qualities and enabled the fisher- 

 men to use a much larger fleet of nets; and (3) the revolutionising introduction 

 of steam and motor power. Regarding research, an inquiry was made as far 

 back as 1837, following the failure of the estuarine fishery in the Firth of 

 Forth, which led to a distinction being drawn between the sprat and the young 

 herring. Specimens dating from this investigation were exhibited. A further 

 investigation carried out by the Board in conjunction with the Meteorological 

 Society of Scotland in 1873-75 had led to the conclusion, which has been con- 

 firmed by subsequent investigations, that local variation in the temperature of 

 the sea has a very important bearing on the abundance of herring. R«cent 



