SEA-FISHERIES LABORATORY. Ill 



sections of the Economic Appendix, will be found the most 

 readable and instructive parts. It is only fair to state 

 that the eleven beautiful plates that illustrate the Structure 

 and Life-history of the Plaice have been presented to us, 

 as the cost of their production has been defrayed by a 

 grant from Victoria University. 



Mr. Scott's account of the Sea-fish Hatching work at 

 Piel will be found on p. 122. During the past year the 

 work has been done upon the Flounder, and over 13 

 millions of young have been hatched and distributed in 

 suitable waters. Next year we hope to deal largely with 

 the Plaice, and a supply of spawners, obtained by our 

 steamer through the courtesy of the Fishery Board for 

 Scotland from Luce Bay, has already been laid in. 



I desire to emphasise what I have pointed out before, that 

 sea-fish hatcheries ought not to be regarded as merely for 

 the purpose of hatching young fish and then setting them 

 free in the sea. The Hatching and Hearing of fish is the 

 end to have in view, and scientific men who have charge of 

 Fish Hatcheries will not be content till they have succeeded 

 in rearing into young fish, at a reasonable cost, a 

 sufficiently large proportion of the fry which they can now 

 hatch from the eggs by the million. Professor G. 0. Sars 

 first showed how the eggs of an edible fish (the Cod) could 

 be hatched in small numbers as a laboratory experiment. 

 Capt. Dannevig in Norway and the U.S. Fish Commission 

 in America have devised the apparatus and technique by 

 which it has become possible, with very slight mortality, to 

 hatch out such eggs on an industrial scale by hundreds 

 of millions. The next advance must be in rearing. It may 

 be very useful to turn out large numbers of fry, but it is 

 not sufficient as an ultimate aim ; what we want to do 

 ultimately is to hatch and rear fish. We must experiment 



