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Appendices to Fifth Annual Report 



From what has been stated it will be evident that man can interfere 

 with the greatest possible advantage when (1) there is a tendency to defi- 

 cient impregnation ; (2) when the eggs are in great danger of being 

 destroyed during development ; and (3) when there is a danger of the 

 fry succumbing soon after they are hatched for want of suitable nourish- 

 ment. 



All these dangers exist in the Salmon idse, and it is probably chiefly 

 because of their presence that the successes at the British hatcheries have 

 been so marked. 



We are, however, not so much concerned with fresh water as with sea 

 fish. For some years the cultivation of sea fish has been anxiously con- 

 sidered in this country, and in the United States and Norway experimental 

 hatching of sea fish has been carried on. Many already advocate the 

 hatching of sea fish on a large scale. 



Now that we are prohibiting beam trawling in some of our firths and 

 bays, and beginning to look upon the territorial waters more as nurseries 

 for young fish, we must soon consider carefully whether the hatching of 

 millions of sea fish is likely to aid materially in maintaining or rather 

 increasing the fish supply. 



We have indicated that complete success has at last, after long years of 

 experiments, attended the hatching and rearing of fresh water fish. Let 

 us now consider whether success is likely to attend the attempt to increase 

 by artificial means the numbers of sea fish and lobsters. 



To some fish nature has been more generous than others, and sometimes 

 it is difficult to understand the reason of her bounty. For example, 

 sharks and rays either bring forth their young alive and well developed, or 

 they protect their eggs for months in curious capsules (mermaids' purses), 

 which seem sufficiently uninviting to the all-devouring cod and the other 

 hungry 'jackals ' of the deep. The result is that, from a fisherman's point 

 of view, our waters contain far larger herds of wolf -like dogfish than there 

 is any necessity for. 



On the other hand, in the ordinary food fishes (the sole, turbot, flounder, 

 cod, haddock, whiting, herring, &c.) there is practically no attempt at protec- 

 tion. The eggs are either deposited at the bottom, as in the herring, 

 at the mercy of all comers — the cod, haddock, and others which follow in 

 the wake of the herring shoals — or they float at or near the surface, 

 tempting little morsels which seem specially designed for the myriads of 

 pelagic forms that move about in the surface waters. 



For the herring eggs I cannot think of any protection that nature has 

 provided. The herring, as it were, lead their enemies to the very gates of 

 their innermost harbours, and make no attempt to conceal or defend their 

 precious eggs. But the fry when once hatched are comparatively safe, 

 because of their extreme transparency. Many floating eggs may be said 

 to be protected in the same way. They are so small and transparent, so 

 like the medium in which they float, that they may often readily escape 

 from many of their enemies. 



The lobster, unlike the ordinary food fishes, has its eggs (' berries ') 

 cleverly fixed under its powerful tail, where they are not only protected 

 but carefully aerated as development advances, and the young when 

 hatched swim actively about near the surface of the water until the adult 

 dress is assumed, when they seek shelter under rocks and stones at 

 the bottom. 



A very limited acquaintance with the life history of sea fish enables one 

 to readily understand that though the culture of salmon and trout may be 

 highly advantageous, and often all but imperative, it does not follow that 

 this is the case with the herring and cod and their allies. Iii the first 



