SEA-FISHERIES LABORATORY. 107 



THE EXPLOITATION OF INSHORE FISHERIES. 

 By Professor W. A. Herdman, F.R.S. 



Many " Advisory " and other Committees, some in 

 connection with the great Government Departments, and 

 others among the leading Scientific Societies, are at present 

 engaged in deliberations and investigations in connection 

 with the great war we are waging, not merely with immediate 

 and pressing war problems but also with the later and possibly 

 equally important after-war questions, which are bound to 

 arise affecting the prosperity of the country and the mainten- 

 ance of the Empire. A large number of these matters turn 

 upon the application of scientific knowledge and scientific 

 methods to various industries, and amongst these not the 

 least important are those concerned with the allied subjects 

 of agriculture and aquiculture or the scientific regulation and 

 cultivation of our land crops and our sea fisheries. 



It is now generally recognised that, both for the present 

 maintenance of the country and also with the view of making a 

 rapid recovery from the effects of the war, amongst other 

 things agriculture and allied industries must be vigorously 

 promoted, and it must be seen to that no suitable land is 

 wasted, that none is applied to the wrong purpose, and that 

 the most favourable treatment to ensure the best results is 

 given to each area. In fact, a more systematic study and 

 more intensive cultivation of the land must be made. In quite 

 a similar way, and for no less important reasons, the harvest 

 of the sea must be promoted, the fisheries must be continuously 

 investigated, and such cultivation as is possible must be applied 

 to our barren shores — and all such fisheries investigation and 



