OUR FOOD FROM THE SEA 201 



of the increasing sunlight. The amount of this turn-over of 

 carbon is probably ia the neighbourhood of from 20,000 to 

 30,000 tons ^ per cubic mile of sea. 



It was Sir John Murray who first suggested that the 

 meadows of the sea — ^the Diatoms in the surface waters— like 

 the meadows of the land, start to grow in spring simply as a 

 result of the lengthening of the days and the increase in sun- 

 light, and Moore's figures in regard to the resulting change in 

 alkalinity show that the amount of carbon stored up in the 

 growing vegetable matter in the sea is far greater, per acre, 

 than is the case on land. Such considerations suggest at 

 least the possibility that there is much more ultimate food 

 matter in the sea than is at present made use of, and that a 

 scientific aquiculture in the future may discover the means 

 of converting more of the available carbon into fish-food, and 

 then fish, so as to increase our marine harvest. 



Scientific investigations bearing on sea-fisheries questions 

 have hitherto dealt with the fish as they live in the sea — 

 their structure and habits, their reproduction and life-history, 

 their food and general relations to their environment— with the 

 object of discovering the best means of conserving the fisheries 

 or even of increasing the supply of fish. But it is now coming 

 to be recognised that there is need also oi biologico-chemical 

 investigations on the fish after they are caught, on the post- 

 mortem changes that they undergo in different circumstances, 

 and on how best to preserve them with their nutrient and 

 other desirable quaUties unimpaired until they are put on the 

 market and used as food. 



Sach investigations will teach us how best to deal with 

 the occasional unexpected superabundant catches which 

 glut the markets and sometimes result in much good food 

 being wasted as field-manure. But they will also lead to a 

 more equitable distribution and a more profitable use of the 

 periodic profusion of such local fisheries as those of herrings, 



^ These figures are not final and may be subject to some correction, but 

 they give an indication of the vast scale of the phenomenon and of the large 

 amount of potential ultimate food-matter available. 



