ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



1469 



Fishing in deep water by steam trawling ves- 

 sels has long been practiced in England, but 

 this method of fishing has been but little de- 

 veloped in other countries. There are probably 

 not more than half a dozen trawlers in Ameri- 

 can waters, most of them sailing from Boston. 



The State of New South Wales has dis- 

 covered magnificent trawling grounds at vari- 

 ous places along the coast, but much remains to 

 be done in the way of exploring them. The 

 fish are sold according to species at from three 

 pence for the cheapest, to nine pence for the 

 most important. This State-trawled fish is as 

 choice as it is cheap, and is retailed at prices 

 from one-third to one-half of those ruling in the 

 establishments of middlemen. The Government 

 method of handling the fish means decentrali- 

 zation. It is the beginning of a process of 

 building up communities of producers in many 

 places. The object is to handle a new food 

 supply in an economical and efficient manner, 

 to avoid the waste of existing conditions. The 

 work is under the management of Mr. David 

 G. Stead, of the New South Wales Fisheries 

 Department. Mr. Stead spent several hours 

 at the New York Aquarium when he visited this 

 country two years ago. 



THE NEW EXHIBITION TANKS 

 By C. H. TowNSEND 



THE Aquarium has now eleven glass-fronted 

 tanks of large size. These tanks are com- 

 parable in size and appearance with the 

 large glass-fronted tanks that are to be seen in 

 some of the aquariums of Europe and are not 

 to be seen in any of the aquariums of this 

 country. 



In the last Aquarium number of this Bulle- 

 TiNj attention was called to the construction of 

 four large tanks during the past summer, all 

 the work being done by employees of the Aqua- 

 rium. By the practice of every possible form 

 of economy, a sufficient amount of money was 

 saved from the regular maintenance fund to 

 permit of the construction of seven more large 

 tanks by contract work, the labor thrown on 

 our own men by such work being too heavy to 

 be continued indefinitely. 



As the capacity of these tanks will permit of 

 the exhibition of three or four times as many 

 specimens as the small tanks contained, they are 

 not at present fully stocked. They cannot be 

 properly filled until the next collecting season' 

 begins in April. At present they contain merely 

 their original exhibits with the addition of the 



fishes formerly held in the old reserve tanks, 

 originally located behind them but now abol- 

 ished. These tanks are capable of holding not 

 only many more specimens, but can be filled 

 with specimens of larger size than has hereto- 

 fore been practicable. It will also be possible 

 for each large tank to carry a greater number 

 of species. The general health of the living oc- 

 cupants of these tanks will be immensely im- 

 proved, as they have a greatly increased swim- 

 ming space. The tanks hold, in fact, so much 

 more water, that the filling of them has greatly 

 lowered the level of stored sea water in the 

 Aquarium reservoir under Battery Park. 



It has, of course, been necessary to add to 

 this supply of pure sea water, all of which has 

 been brought in a tank boat from the vicinity 

 of Sandy Hook Lightship. Its salinity is twice 

 as high as that of the water in the Harbor, and 

 moreover it is absolutely pure, which cannot be 

 said of the sewage-laden water that ebbs and 

 flows around the Island of Manhattan. 



Most of the big tanks have been constructed 

 by combining the original, small tanks in pairs, 

 knocking out the dividing walls, and placing the 

 back walls against the outer wall of the build- 

 ing, giving all the tanks a depth of twelve feet 

 back from the glass. It is a new submarine 

 view altogether that we get in these enlarged 

 tanks. 



The back walls are sufficiently removed to 

 give a feeling of indefinite depth, the fishes al- 

 most disappearing when they move to the rear, 

 while their reappearance from partial obscurity 

 gives a new interest to their movements. 



Much of the charm attributed to the Aquari- 

 um at Naples is due to the large size of the ex- 

 hibition tanks, rather than to the character of 

 their living exhibits. There are, for instance, 

 no fishes to be found. in Mediterranean waters 

 which can compare in brillancy of coloration 

 with the tropical fishes of the West Indies, al- 

 ways to be found in the New York Aquarium. 

 The latter not only has a larger building, but 

 more than twice the number of and variety of 

 living occupants. 



Attendance at the Aquarium. — The attend- 

 ance at the Aquarium during the year 1916 was 

 1,499,667. 



Visitors from Piihlic Schools. — During the 

 year 1916, nearly ten thousand school children 

 visited the Aquarium in classes with their 

 teachers. 



