of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 
401 
' means of preserving the oysters would be to lease the beds, subject to 
' strict conditions as to maintaining them in full bearing. At present the 
' only practical way to preserve them is to close them entirely. This 
' is effectual as long as it lasts ; but once the beds are opened, they are 
' rushed, and in a few months the benefit gained by keeping them closed 
' for years is lost.' * Statistics of the yield are not given annually ; but 
in 1885 New Zealand exported — chiefly to Sydney and Melbourne — 
1,228,215 dozens of oysters, valued at £5529. 
The New Zealand Government have been specially successful in intro- 
ducing valuable food fishes from other countries. The salmon was 
introduced some years ago by the aid and co-operation of Sir J. R.- 
G.-Maitland, Bart. In 1888 an additional importation of 632,850 
salmon ova was made. For the last eight or nine years a close-time 
has been enforced for fur seals ; this measure was rendered necessary by 
the indiscriminate slaughter that took place for a number of years. 
At the meeting of the Association for the Advancement of Science a 
few months ago, at Auckland, Sir James Hector, the President, urged the 
need of the establishment of a zoological station for the study of the 
habits of sea fishes, and for the hatching of marine fishes and shell-fish of 
commercial value. 
VI. UNITED STATES. 
The artificial propagation Vf the cod, begun by the Fish Commission a 
few years ago on tlie coast of Massachusetts, has resulted in success. In 
the autumn of 1889 the fishermen reported an abundance of small cod 
on Nantucket Shoals ; and during last summer these fish, somewhat 
larger, have appeared in enormous numbers. The Commission says : 
' When the Commission began to hatch cod, many of the old fishermen 
' were sceptical as to the results. . . . They now, however, are convinced 
* that the work will be vastly beneficial to them, and are unanimous in 
' conceding that the phenomenal abundance of small cod off Nantucket 
* Shoals is due to' the efi'orts of the Fish Commission.' The Maine 
Commissioner of sea and shore fisheries states in his Report that there is 
a continued decrease in the catch of lobsters off* the coast. The total 
catch in 1890 was 20,000,000, a decrease of 5,000,000, or 20 per cent., 
from the catch for 1888, and of 10 per cent, from the catch for 1889. 
In 1890 the average length of the lobsters offered for sale was about 
10^ inches, and the average weight 2 lbs. Ten years previously the 
average length was 13 inches, and the average weight 3-J to 4 lbs. 
In 1888 the U.S. Fish Commission steamer, 'Albatross,' made an 
extensive exploration of the fishing-grounds of Alaska, Washington 
Territory, and Oregon. f It is proposed later to extend the area of explora- 
tion northwards into Behring Sea, and southwards along the coasts of 
Oregon and California. Cod and halibut are abundant in Alaskan waters; 
and now ' with the completion of several railroads, affording the means of 
* transporting fresh produce into the interior of the country, with the 
' prospect of establishing a large and lucrative trade in salt cod and other 
* species with the markets of South America and Asia ; and, not least 
' important, with the advent of New England fishermen, a renewed and 
* stronger interest has sprung up in relation to these same fisheries, which 
* seems destined to exert a marked influence upon the future welfare of 
' the Pacific States and Territories.' Hence the expedition. A series of 
* Annual Report of the Marine Department of New Zealand, 1889-90, * I — H,' 18, 
WelHngton, 1890. 
t Bulletin U.S. Fish Commission, vol. viii., 1891. 
2 c 
