SEA-FISHERIES LABORATORY. 121 



taken over, if that is possible, from the Marine Biological 

 Association, and should be the home laboratory of the 

 Fisheries Department of the Board of Agriculture and 

 Fisheries, in order to furnish the Government Depart- 

 ment with the laboratories, experimental tanks and 

 scientific assistants, without which the officials cannot be 

 expected to carry on original investigations. 



On the other hand, if the view be held that the 

 Government Department should not itself undertake any 

 actual marine investigations, but should delegate such 

 work to the different laboratories round the coast, a 

 natural division of the area would be for the Marine 

 Biological Association, with its laboratories at Plymouth 

 and Lowestoft, to conduct the explorations from Cornwall 

 to the Wash, "while the District Committees North of that 

 point, with the laboratory at Cullercoats, would undertake 

 the remainder of the East Coast. The exact details of 

 such divisions are not of prime importance, the essential 

 point being that the Ichthyological Committee in making 

 their recommendations in regard to laboratories for the 

 three coasts made use to the fullest extent of existing 

 institutions. 



(4) Vessels. — Each of the three coasts, it is proposed, 

 should have a research or surveying steamer of the type 

 of a modern steam trawler, especially fitted up for 

 scientific investigations and carrying on its work in 

 connection with the laboratory of that coast. 



(5) Central Authority. — The Ichthyological Com- 

 mittee recommend the formation of a " Fishery Council 

 for England," consisting of representatives of (a) the 

 Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, (b) the local Sea- 

 Fisheries Authorities of the three coasts, and (c) the 

 scientific men in charge of the three marine laboratories. 

 This Fishery Council would be, to some extent, analogous 



