CORMORANTS AND THE GIPPSLAND LAKES FISHERY 
117 
and so long as we continue in our ways, tinkering occasionally 
with effects instead of dealing with causes, so long will we 
continue to reap disaster for ourselves and those who follow. 
There is only one way out and that is to seek to know intimately 
these natural conditions or laws, and to work with, not against 
them. This information can be obtained only by means of 
thorough ecological surveys the cost of which would be equal 
to an infinitesimal portion of what is at present lost annually 
through a lack of such work. 
