78 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
It is possible, however, for practical purposes, to divide 
these varied researches into two main categories :— 
(1). Those investigations which are directed towards 
supplying information required immediately 
for administrative purposes and for advancing 
the fishing industries ; and 
(2). The more academic researches which may not be 
obviously of direct practical importance, but 
which aim at extending knowledge by way of 
fillmg up gaps, affording explanations of 
ascertained facts and obtaining scientific 
evidence as to conditions of life in the sea. 
It is difficult, however, to draw a strict line of demarcation 
between these two categories. The academic research may at 
any moment lead to some conclusion of direct practical 
importance, and the investigation of some industrial or 
administrative pot may branch off into an inquiry of a purely 
scientific nature. 
Consequently, it is no easy matter to decide how far 
research should be combined with administration, and which 
particular researches should be relegated to University labora- 
tories and Biological Stations. 
Moreover, as much sea-fisheries investigation must be of 
a local character and be carried out locally, it is difficult to 
determine to what extent researches around the whole coast 
should be controlled by a central Committee or may be left in 
the hands of competent local organisations. 
To take a concrete example, the scientific fisheries work 
carried out at the University of Liverpool and in the Irish Sea _ 
in connection with the Lancashire and Western Sea-Fisheries 
Committee during the last twenty years, has included both 
categories of research mentioned above, and has been in close 
‘telation with both the Administrative Authority and the 
University laboratories. 
