SEA-FISHERIES LABORATORY. 199 



relatively low density and high temperature." I fail to 

 see the necessity, and I feel it very important that fry 

 should not be liberated in such unsuitable waters. We 

 must endeavour to plant them in the localities where they 

 are naturally found, and in the condition under which 

 they are naturally deposited and developed, so that they 

 may grow and be distributed in the pelagic waters in the 

 ordinary course of nature, and find their way gradually 

 into the shallow water nurseries. It will be easy, for 

 example, in our own district to carry this out by running 

 the boxes of fry on the steamer out into deep water 

 over the natural spawning grounds before setting them 

 free. I hope, however,, that before long we shall have 

 taken the further step and be attempting to rear some of 

 the newly hatched fry to later stages within enclosed 

 areas. 



The Fishery Board for Scotland, in their " General 

 Statement " (see Fourteenth Annual Report, 1896, p. 10) 

 as to the utility of Sea-Fish Hatching, say : — " The 

 artificial propagation of the food fishes on a large scale 

 may now be regarded as having passed beyond the sphere 

 of experiment, and taken its place as a department of 

 practical pisciculture," &c. I do not go quite so far as 

 that, but would regard the operations as being still in the 

 experimental stage, although I consider the experiment as 

 being of very great importance, and one it is the duty of 

 fishery authorities to test thoroughly, and I agree rather 

 with their further remark from the same page of the 

 Eeport : — " It is, however, of importance that the economic 

 results of marine pisciculture should be as speedily as 

 possible ascertained. Its utility as a means of benefiting 

 the sea fisheries depends upon the extent to which it is 

 likely to increase the abundance of the fishes propagated." 



Marine biologists and fisheries authorities everywhere 



