International Council for Fishery Investigations

Abstract

A PERUSAL of the programme of the International Council for Fishery Investigations, as outlined in NATURE of March 18, substantiates the criticisms published in 1902 and 1903, as well as later. In the interests of the fisheries and of the public in these critical times it is imperative to direct attention once more to the position. In the original programme of about twenty yearsi ago the Council were to discover whether the yield of the sea-fisheries was increasing or diminishing, and especially to demonstrate the impoverishment of the sea (as if the myriads of ova on the fishmongers' slabs every year afforded no lesson); to show to what extent fishing-grountis could be depleted without danger; to point out what fishing apparatus was destructive; to investigate the small fish grounds; to make discoveries of practical importance to the fisheries; to publish annual results; and finally to produce data (even within two years) on which British and foreign legislation could be based.