CONSIDERATION OF INDIVIDUAL FISH 79 



are established for the purpose of instructing fishermen in marine 

 biology and navigation (for the Board of Trade examinations for 

 skippers and second hands). The accounts relating to the build- 

 ing, equipment and upkeep of these institutions are not easily 

 available, and it would in any case be difficult to estimate what 

 proportion of the expenditure should be allocated to the hatching 

 operations. 



It has been repeatedly claimed on behalf of these institutions 

 that results of direct economic importance have accrued from their 

 operations, but, in fact, it would be difficult to justify their con- 

 tinued existence on that ground alone. As a matter of fact, these 

 hatcheries are merely adjuncts to institutions devoted to marine 

 research and to the education of fishermen. 



These institutions are devoted to the hatching of various species 

 of sea fish, including plaice, lemon soles, turbot, cod and lobsters ; 

 and it should be noted that , unlike similar fresh water establishments, 

 no attempts at rearing the fish have up to the present been successful. 

 It would appear from various criticisms that have from time to time 

 been published, notably those of Fryer ^ and Hensen*, that these 

 hatcheries have been instituted without due inquiry into the 

 occurrence of eggs and larvae of fish in a state of nature ; no efforts 

 have been made in this country to determine the " census " of the 

 sea, if indeed such an operation is possible ; the only inquiries that 

 have been made on an extended scale into the quantitative deter- 

 mination of fish eggs and larvae are those of the Germans, who have, 

 as a result of their observations, taken up a firm attitude against 

 sea fish hatcheries. It need hardly be pointed out that the qualita- 

 tive observations that have been carried out in this country as to 

 the determination of floating organisms, inclusive of fish eggs, 

 afford no firm basis for generalisation into the relative abundance 

 of the plankton from year to year. In fact, the quantitative results 

 obtained abroad are open to the serious criticism that they may not 

 be fair samples of the floating population of the seas, but, at any 

 rate, they serve to indicate the lines on which research should have 

 been prosecuted before expenditure was incurred on schemes of 

 rather doubtful utility. 



It would appear that the bulk of the hatching operations are 

 directed to the attempt to increase the supply of plaice ; and during 

 the twelve years ending 1913 the Scottish Fishery Board liberated 

 226 million fry of the plaice. The Annual Report of the Marine 

 Biological Station at Port Erin for 1914 gives a total for the season's 



• 12th Ann. Rept. oj the Inspectors oj Sea Fisheries [England and Wales), p. 29, 

 1898. 



' Wissenschaftliche Meeresuntersuchungen. N.F. Bd. II. Heft. 2. Kiel, 1897, 

 p. 71. 



