404 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



There is a method about the detailed distribution of 

 the plankton that convinces one it must depend upon 

 laws or factors which can probably be ascertained, and 

 thus lead to the possibility of correlation and prediction 

 within limits. 



That different currents or bodies of water in the sea 

 differ very notably in their plankton is well known to 

 biologists who have tested the matter. For example, in 

 crossing the Atlantic to Canada one can tell to a nicety, 

 even by means of a small silk net attached to* a bath tap 

 on a passenger steamer, when the ship has entered the 

 Labrador current. The catch of plankton is suddenly 

 increased enormously, and consists of an entirely 

 different assemblage of organisms ; and this abundant 

 plankton is probably definitely related to the great 

 fisheries on the Newfoundland Banks. 



Observations in the Irish Sea and on the West of 

 Scotland have shown that the plankton at a locality may 

 fluctuate, both in amount and essential nature, from 

 year to year; and although a definite relation between 

 these fluctuations and the variations in the distribution 

 and catches of fish has not yet been established, it is 

 reasonably probable that a fuller and more detailed 

 knowledge of both will enable a correlation to be 

 demonstrated. 



Artificial hatching, rearing and transplanting, if 

 shown to be beneficial to the fisheries, must depend for 

 success, in part, upon a knowledge of the plankton, for - 

 the young fish must obviously be set free where they can 

 obtain their natural food. 



6. Relation of Plankton to Hydrography and 

 Fisheries. — It is clear then that there are definite 

 relations between fishes and plankton organisms, and 

 that it seems possible with fuller data to correlate some 



