FOREIGN RESEARCH ORGANISATIONS 147 



from them. Comparing the results of investi- 

 gation, scientific and otherwise, in Europe with 

 those obtained in America, one writer remarks : 

 " In the United States, on the contrary, public 

 opinion is generally antagonistic to fishery legis- 

 lation, and our Commissioner of Fisheries, after 

 carrying on, for fourteen years, investigation upon 

 this very question, has not yet become satisfied 

 that laws are necessary for the perpetuation of the 

 sea-fisheries, nor has he yet recommended to Con- 

 gress enactment of any kind."^ It has to be 

 remembered, however, that the condition of the 

 sea-fisheries in America is very different from that 

 in Great Britain and in the North Sea countries. 

 Here there has been an intense and ever-increasing 

 exploitation of the fishing grounds in recent years, 

 such as does not yet exist in American waters, and 

 in an area which is trifling in extent when com- 

 pared with that which exists on the American 

 sea-board and in the rivers and great lakes. 



Finally, we have to note the condition which, in 

 America, as in Germany and in Scotland, distin- 

 guishes the fisheries research authority from those 

 existing in England and Ireland at the present day 

 — its independence of any of the State departments. 

 In America, as in Germany and in Scotland, the 

 success of the scientific investigations, and in the 



1 l/.S. FtsA Commissioner's Jiepori/ori8S4 {1886), p. ii4g. This 

 remark applies, liowever, to Federal statutes. Some of the States 

 impose restrictions on fishing methods. 



