Visionneuse

Cote

551.46 MIC

Auteur

Mintosh, W.C.

Sujet

Resources marines -- resources of the sea

Type de document

Livre

Description :

The author has felt it an urgent duty, since the work for the Royal Commission under Lord Dalhousie, to watch the
various experiments to test the effects of trawling and of the closure, the more especially as these had been originally suggested by himself Judgment was withheld until all the necessary facts were available, and a sufficient margin of time
had supervened for the thorough investigation and testing of the areas. Now, after the lapse of twelve years, and of
fifteen since the original work was begun ; after a study of all that had been done at home independently of these experiments, and in other maritime countries ; after a prolonged investigation into the development and life-histories of the
food-fishes ; and after the general statistics of the fisheries had time to settle into a reliable condition, it has been deemed prudent to make a critical survey of the work, and to form conclusions on this important question.
It was hoped that opportunities would have been afforded for repeating in 1898, on the same dates and, as far as
possible, under the same circumstances, the experiments of 1884, but the authorities did not appear to see either the way
or the inqDortance of such an enterprise. The suggestion was made in no narrow spirit, indeed its acceptance would have
entailed very serious responsibilities on the author.
The great aim of the survey has been to search for truth in this complex subject, to weigh carefully every fact bearing on
its solution, and to bring an unbiassed mind to the task. To the scientific investigator a conclusion favourable to the continuance of restrictive measures would have been as welcome.