SEA-FISHERIES LABORATORY. 123 



Committee have considered it practicable to constitute 

 one Central Fisheries Department for the United 

 Kingdom. We may quote finally paragraph 39 from 

 the "Concluding Observations" of the Report: — 

 " 'The Committee believe that by carrying out these 

 recommendations the State would recognise, co-relate and 

 control the work of the existing independent organisations 

 in the United Kingdom, and would build up a scheme of 

 Fishery Research of a thoroughly practical character, 

 centring, as regards England, in the Board [of Agri- 

 culture and Fisheries], and, at the same time, in intimate 

 contact with the fishing trade, the District Committees 

 and the scientific laboratories round the coast," 



The Present Situation. 



The adoption of these recommendations made in 1902 

 by the Ichthyological Committee's Report would, it is 

 believed, satisfy the wishes and claims of the District 

 Committees on the East and West Coasts, but it seems 

 improbable that that course would satisfy the Marine 

 Biological Association, and it is quite incompatible with 

 a continuance of the International work as at present 

 carried on. It seems doubtful, however, whether the 

 officials of the Marine Biological Association desire that 

 the International work should be continued under its 

 present organisation. The Council of the Marine 

 Biological Association have recently issued various 

 circulars and reports, and have organised a deputation to 

 the Chancellor of the Exchequer, asking H.M. Government 

 to give them control, not merely of the whole amount they 

 have been administering annually in the North Sea 

 investigations, but also of an additional £2,000 a year for 

 the Plymouth Laboratory, making a total annual grant of 

 £8,000, with no limit of time specified. It is very 



