Ixii 



Twenty-ninth Annual Report 



Scientific and Technical Instruction to Fishermen. 



For some years, as mentioned in previous Reports, by an arrangement 

 with the County Councils of sea-board counties, representative fisher- 

 men from various parts of the coast visited the Laboratory and 

 Hatchery in spring to receive demonstrations on the life-history and 

 habits of fishes, such as might be of interest and use to them, and to 

 see the processes of fish-hatching. Visits of this kind have been paid 

 by men from the counties of Caithness, Sutherland, Inverness, Elgin, 

 Aberdeen, Kincardine, Berwick, Fife, Bute, and Argyll, and they were 

 so much interested in the instruction they received that, in some 

 instances, on returning home, they held public meetings to discuss 

 and communicate to other fishermen what they had learned. The 

 expense of sending the men was met by the County Councils from the 

 Residue Grant, but this, by the Education Act (Scotland), 1908, has 

 been transferred to the Scottish Education funds, and no fishermen 

 have attended during the last two years. 



It may be pointed out that on the whole question of the technical 

 and scientific education of fishermen and those engaged in the fishing 

 industry, most other countries are in advance of ourselves. In 

 France, Germany, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, and the 

 Netherlands, there are a number of fishery schools devoted to the 

 instruction of fishermen, more or less directly under the patronage of 

 the State. They are concerned mostly with that part of a fisherman's 

 knowledge which relates to navigation, fishing- grounds, and actual 

 fishing, but many offer elaborate facilities for instruction of a more 

 purely scientific kind, and are provided with laboratories, museums, 

 and a teaching staff, and lectures and demonstrations are given at 

 suitable centres. 



It would be of much value, especially for the younger generation of 

 fishermen, if similar courses of lectures, demonstrations, and instruction 

 were established in Scotland. It is very gratifying to know that keen 

 interest is taken by many of the fishermen in the knowledge concerning 

 the life-history, movements, and reproduction of the fishes on which 

 their livelihood depends. 



The Influence of Temperature on the Development of the Eggs 



OF the Herring. 



At the request of the New Zealand Government, a series of experi- 

 ments have been made by Dr. H. C. Williamson, at the Marine 

 Laboratory, on the retardation of the development of herring eggs. It 

 is desired by the New Zealand Government to attempt, if possible, to 

 introduce this fish to the waters of the Dominion, and in order to enable 

 the eggs to be carried to the other side of the globe a period of about 

 fifty days must elapse before hatching occurs. Considerable difficulties 

 have been encountered in the experiment, particularly in keeping the 

 temperature of the considerable supply of water which is necessary 

 for the well-being of the eggs sufficiently low and uniform ; but it has 

 been found possible to retard the hatching for the period required in 

 a proportion of the eggs. A report on the subject will shortly be 

 submitted. 



