SEA-FISHERIES LABORATORY. 71 



application of science to industries, how soon the results 

 of what now seems an investigation in pure science may- 

 turn out to have some important practical bearing. For 

 my part I am of opinion that all knowledge of animal life 

 in our seas is of importance, and will help us to 

 understand the life and ways of fishes. 



That a detailed knowledge of the sea and its contents 

 (however minute) must be the basis of fishery practice 

 and regulation is recognised in the following extract from 

 the Memorial in favour of International Oceanographic 

 Exploration sent last April by the Swedish Government to 

 our Foreign Office : — " All fishing in the North Atlantic, 

 and especially the presence of the migratory fishes, 

 depends upon the great currents in the upper layers of the 

 sea, and the variation of the presence in these layers of 

 the food required by the fishes, viz., ' Plankton ' or organ- 

 isms of animal or vegetable origin floating in the water. 

 A knowledge of these currents and of the quality and 

 quantity of food they contain is necessary in order to deter- 

 mine the legislation required for the creation of a rational 

 organisation of the fisheries." Then, again, the migrations 

 of the Cod towards the Lofoten banks and fjords, and of the 

 winter Herring into the Skagerack, seem, according to 

 Otto Pettersson, to be regulated by the impact of cold 

 Arctic and west Atlantic water in winter driving the fishes 

 to those parts of the sea where the conditions are less 

 unfavourable. 



It is considerations such as these that lead naturalists 

 to urge that fishery observations and investigations must 

 not be restricted by any territorial or administrative 

 boundaries, but should be extended to off-shore waters, 

 and even the high seas, so as to follow up and unravel the 

 factors that contribute to the distribution of our coast 

 fisheries. 



