loo SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 



scale is clearly out of the question and it is not possible even to begin the 

 acquisition of the fundamental knowledge that is essential to future 

 progress. Japanese trawlers, taking advantage of the complete lack of 

 development of the Indian off-shore fisheries, are now visiting the Bay 

 of Bengal in increasing numbers, and there is perhaps a possibility that 

 their activities will cause the Government of India to realise how back- 

 ward they are in fishery administration. It is evident that little or nothing 

 can be expected from one or two men working in isolation and that only 

 an all-India service, with the esprit de corps that such a service would 

 have, can be sufficient for India's growing needs. 



It has taken more than a quarter of a century of intensive co-operative 

 effort by most of the leading European nations to build up the information 

 that we now possess of the fisheries round our coasts, and though with 

 existing knowledge and the better methods that have been devised it 

 might be possible to reach the same stage in a shorter time, the accumula- 

 tion of the necessary facts must inevitably be a slow process. Adminis- 

 trators are still prone to expect a rapid solution to any question which 

 they submit to scientific inquiry ; but in almost every problem which 

 touches marine biology it is essential to possess a background of funda- 

 mental knowledge which can only be acquired by long years of patient 

 study. If there is one lesson to be learnt from the history of fisheries 

 research — one that cannot be too heavily stressed — -it is that the oppor- 

 tunity of dealing effectively with a fishery problem will generally be lost 

 unless this basic knowledge has been obtained in advance and is ready for 

 application. 



Even in our home waters, which have been examined so long and so 

 closely, our information is not within sight of being complete : in almost 

 every branch of fisheries work there are new fields to be explored, new 

 methods to be tried, and many large gaps in the knowledge we possess. 

 But it may at least be said that we have made a beginning, that we are 

 aware of the deficiencies and are trying with the facilities we possess to 

 make improvements. 



In many other parts of the world, however, not even a beginning has 

 yet been made ; ignorance is profound and there is no background of 

 knowledge which can be utilised. It is no great exaggeration to say that 

 in Africa and throughout almost the whole of the vast stretch of the Indo- 

 Pacific region there is scarcely a fish whose life history is fully known and 

 whose various stages from egg to adult can be recognised. Of such 

 matters as age, rate of growth, spawning periods, food and migrations 

 we are equally ignorant, nothing is known of the incidence of fluctuations 

 and nothing of the seasonal or other changes in the environment. It is 

 surely time that the importance of such knowledge was recognised and 

 that early steps were taken to lay the foundations of fishery science 

 throughout the Empire. 



When speaking of long-range fluctuations I expressed the view that the 

 facilities we at present possess in Europe are insufficient to give us all the 

 data we need : regular observations over a much extended area are 

 required if we are to reap the full advantages of the knowledge we have 

 gained. In the present state of international politics we can expect little ; 

 but when, in God's good time, the nations begin to turn their armaments 



