of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



47 



of the benefit derived — is to be found in the Report of the Irish Inland 

 Fisheries Commission. This Commission, three of whose members were 

 scientific men (Mr. Wm. Spotswood Green, the head of the Irish Fish- 

 eries Department ; Professor W. C. M'Intosh, of St. Andrews ; and 

 Professor D. J. Cunningham), referring to the maintenance of hatcheries 

 by the net owners in their own interest, and recognising that this 

 " furnished the best evidence of the belief of those who possess practical 

 acquaintance with fishery matters in the efficacy of artificial propagation," 

 strongly recommended that a central hatchery should be established in 

 each province of Ireland, which should be erected, fitted up, and main- 

 tained out of funds under the control of the Fishery Authority, and be 

 directly under the supervision of the Department ; and they stated that 

 the foreign authorities to whom they applied for their opinion as to 

 whether artificial breeding was beneficial all replied in the affirmative." * 



In this category of opinion or evidence must be placed the statements 

 made from time to time by fishermen as to the influence of fish hatching 

 on the abundance of the fishes on the grounds frequented by them. In 

 the United States and in Norway the fishermen in the neighbourhood 

 where the fry have been liberated have not unfrequently stated their 

 opinion that the work was beneficial in increasing the supply of fishes, 

 and in years of abundance they commonly attribute this abundance to the 

 operation of the hatcheries. At certain parts of the coast of Aberdeen- 

 shire the line fishermen, who annually petition for supplies of plaice fry 

 from the Hatchery at the Bay of Nigg, have also expressed the opinion 

 that the liberation of the fry along the coast has increased the number of 

 plaice in the inshore waters. There is nothing improbable in these state- 

 ments. The fishermen may be quite right in tracing an increase to the 

 effect of the fish-hatching work ; but they may be wrong ; and when the 

 uumerous causes which may operate in producing such fluctuations in 

 abundance are borne in mind, it is clear that evidence of this kind must 

 be very extensive and particular before it can be accepted as a proof. 



Another means suggested by which the effect of the artificial propaga- 

 tion of sea fishes might be ascertained is by a comparative study of the 

 ordinary statistics of the fish landed. Unfortunately, statistics of this 

 kind are not at present suited for the purpose, since no particulars are 

 afforded of the extent of fishing operations or the place where the fish 

 are caught, and they cannot even be used to indicate the measure of 

 general fluctuation, that is to say, whether a particular species is increas- 

 ing, decreasing, or stationary in numbers on any fishing ground, from any 

 cause whatever, natural or artificial. Thus it would be impossible to 

 make use of these statistics to determine the fluctuations in the abundance 

 of plaice from year to year along the coasts of Aberdeenshire and Kin- 

 cardineshire : the fish landed may be caught in quite distant waters, 

 even at Iceland, and there is nothing to show the extent or amount of the 

 fishing operations by which they are caught in the different years. For 

 these reasons, among others, it is evident that the attempt which has been 

 made to judge of the efficacy of cod-hatching in the fjords in the south- 

 east of Norway by a study of the figures showing merely the total catch 

 of cod for the whole of that country must be fallacious.t Moreover, the 

 number of cod taken and the fluctuations from year to year are enormous 

 —the total has varied from under 40,000,000 to over 70,000,000 fish — 



* Irish Inland Fisheries Commission, Report of the Commissioners, 1901, p. 13 ; 

 Appendix, Part II. , p. 20 et seq. The countries were Germany, the Netherlands, 

 United States, State of California, Canada, British Columbia, Norway. 



t Tenth, Eleventh, and Twelfth Annual Reports of the Inspectors of the Sea Fish- 

 eries oj England and Wales, pp. 23, 28, 33. 



