SCIENTIFIC WORK IN THE SEA-FISHERIES. 253 



be said of the young of the flat-fishes. There is no reason to 

 believe that the hardy adults are affected by temperatures, 

 currents, or salinity in a greater degree, except in so far as 

 storms may sweep into bays greater quantities of food ; or a 

 fish, to which cold water is congenial, may approach the coast 

 more closely in winter, or follow the pelagic organisms character- 

 istic of the season. 



It would thus be only reasonable and just to say — with Dr. 

 Otto Pettersson — after all the complication and expenditure on 

 this head in relation to the influences of such phenomena on the 

 fisheries : " The full answer, which practically is of vital im- 

 portance, will not be at hand for years yet to come." The great 

 expenditure for hydrography in these investigations was not 

 entered on without warning, and it is noteworthy that the 

 Hydrographic Eeport by Dr. Pettersson was not adopted by its 

 section, but was printed only as the private view of the author. 



We now turn to the publications of the senior naturalists 

 whose efforts were to be directed to the special elucidation of 

 fisheries' problems, such as the present condition of the food- 

 fishes of the North Sea, and who were, moreover, to make the 

 " announcement of those discoveries which are of direct practical 

 importance to the fishing industry," as well as furnish " recom- 

 mendations for international action." 



Commencing with the southern section, the first subject to 

 be dealt with is the fisheries' work of the Marine Biological 

 Association, a body which more or less identified itself with the 

 " Impoverishment of the Sea." From its workers, therefore, 

 with their new and unequalled opportunities, we looked for sub- 

 stantial proof of the soundness of their position, more especially 

 when it is stated that " facts have been obtained upon which a 

 proper understanding of the yield of the sea must in future be 

 based" — a pregnant sentence, which apparently dispenses with 

 all previous observations at home and abroad. 



This statement appears to derive its origin, not from laborious 

 surveys of the fish-fauna of the southern half of the North Sea— 

 both practically and scientifically studied in the adult and young 

 conditions — but from certain experiments with marked Plaice. 

 The marking of Plaice has long been carried out by the Fishery 

 Board in Scotland without important results, whilst the Americans 



