xii 
Tenth Annual Report of the 
Decay of 
fisheries for 
shell-fish. 
Physical ob- 
servations. 
International 
arrangements 
for regulating 
fishing in 
North Sea. 
been labelled and returned to the sea. A percentage of these has 
been recovered, and steps are now being taken to apply the same 
method on a large scale to the herring. The experiments are not 
sufficiently advanced to justify any final conclusion as regards all 
fish, but undoubtedly as regards many of them the facts already 
ascertained prove that until they reach a certain size they do 
not leave the territorial waters. 
The means of increasing the diminishing fisheries for shell-fish 
have received careful attention. Surveys have been made of the 
more important mussel-beds on the East Coast, the extensive clam- 
bed in the Firth of Forth, the cockle-beds at Barra, and a detailed 
examination of the great mussel-growing area in the Clyde is at 
present in progress. The French system of growing mussels on 
wattled bouchots has been tested side by side with the bed-system, 
and a series of experiments have been made on board the 
'Garland' to test the comparative efficiency of different natural 
baits, and of various artificial substitutes, A physical and biological 
investigation has also been made of a number of sea-lochs on the 
west coast, in order to ascertain their suitability for the growth and 
culture of oysters (the Scottish oyster fisheries having sunk to a 
very low point), and a special lobster pond has been constructed at 
Brodick, Arran, in which about 200,000 young lobsters were 
hatched last year. 
The physical observations into the temperature and salinity of 
the sea have been carried on on board the 'Garland' and the 
fishery cruisers, and at ten fixed Stations daily — five on the 
east coast and five on the west. By the courtesy of the Northern 
Lighthouse Board, observations are allowed to be taken daily at the 
Bell. Eock and Oxcar Lighthouses, the Lightship at the North Carr 
and also at the mouth of the Tay. Many thousands of observa- 
tions are thus made every year, and several valuable reports have 
already been published. 
From this brief summary of part of the work done, it will be 
seen that considerable progress has been made since 1883 in 
extending the knowledge of the habits and life-history of the food- 
fishes ; and it is gratifying to learn that the results obtained by the 
Board have been gratefully acknowledged by high authorities and 
found useful in other countries. 
In recent years the attention of the authorities of various 
maritime States, especially those around the North Sea, but also in 
the Mediterranean and in America, has been forcibly called to 
the diminution of the fish-supply within the territorial seas and on 
much-frequented fishing banks off-shore. The falling off in the 
supply of valuable flat fishes, such as turbot, sole, and plaice, from 
the North Sea, has led to various conferences of those engaged in 
the fishing industry. At the International Fishery Conference 
held in London in 1890, at which representatives were present 
from Germany, Denmark, Holland, France, Belgium and Spain, it 
was resolved that scientific investigations should be carried on by 
each country, particularly into the capture and destruction of im- 
mature fish by the beam-trawl, prior to the assembling of an 
official International Conference to deal with the subject by inter- 
