THE ARTIFICIAL PROPAOATION OF MARINE FISH
6
Daj1nevig arrived from Norway to superintend the hatching prop m m e ; (t detailed description of the installation, by Fulton ( 1 894),
can be found in the 12th Annual Report of the Fishery Board for
Scotland. Its design was similar to that of the Norwegian establishment
at Flodevigen, being equipped with spawning ponds and I ‘ Dannevig ”
incubators. Difficulties were encountered in obtaining adequate
supplies of undamaged ripe fish from trawlers, for stocking the epawning ponds. The provision of a, large tidal basin, for holding captive
stock from one year to another, necessitated moving the hatchery
from Dunbar to the Bay of Nigg, Aberdeen. This was accomplished
in the year 1900.
The principal English pioneer of the marine fish hatchery movement
was Professor W. A. Herdman, who inaugurated the Liverpool Marine
Biology Committee at University College, Liverpool, in 1885, and also
set up a small fisheries laboratory at Liverpool, under the auspices of
the Lancashire Sea Fisheries Committee. He used the publications
of both these organizations to quote American, Norwegian and
Scottish work, in his efforts to establish marine hatcheries on the
Irish Sea coast. In the report of the Lancashire Sea Fisheries Laboratory for 1892, Herdman (1893) observed that the Fishery Board for
Scotland had tried to prevent the gradual decline of their more valuable
coaatal fisheries by absolute prohibition of beam trawling, and that this
regulation had failed in its purpose. He added . . . “ So they have
now come to the conclusion in Scotland, which had been arrived at
previously in some other countries, that the only thing that will
enable a fishery to recover, when once it has been overfished, is artificial propagation and rearing.”
Herdman was over-optimistic about the value of hatchery techniques
as then practised, and uncritical of I ‘ hearsay ” benefits claimed by
supporters of artificial propagation in other countries. His opinions
prevailed, however, and in 1897 a small hatchery for plaice and
flounder, Plutichthys jiesus (L.), eggs was built at Piel, near Barrow,
Lancashire, financed by the Lancs. Sea Fisheries Committee. This wm
followed by a plaice hatchery a t Port Erin, Isle of Man, in 1902, partly
subsidized by the Manx government, but largely organized by the
Liverpool Marine Biology Committee.
The Port Erin hatchery was equipped with spawning ponds on the
Norwegian and Scottish pattern, and “ Dannevig ” incubators. The
Piel hatchery used the same type of incubator, but lacked spawning
ponds. A limited amount of experimental work preceded the construction of both establishments. Herdman (1897) had reared artificially fertilized eggs of Trigla gzmmrduB L. (grey gumad), Micro-
6
Daj1nevig arrived from Norway to superintend the hatching prop m m e ; (t detailed description of the installation, by Fulton ( 1 894),
can be found in the 12th Annual Report of the Fishery Board for
Scotland. Its design was similar to that of the Norwegian establishment
at Flodevigen, being equipped with spawning ponds and I ‘ Dannevig ”
incubators. Difficulties were encountered in obtaining adequate
supplies of undamaged ripe fish from trawlers, for stocking the epawning ponds. The provision of a, large tidal basin, for holding captive
stock from one year to another, necessitated moving the hatchery
from Dunbar to the Bay of Nigg, Aberdeen. This was accomplished
in the year 1900.
The principal English pioneer of the marine fish hatchery movement
was Professor W. A. Herdman, who inaugurated the Liverpool Marine
Biology Committee at University College, Liverpool, in 1885, and also
set up a small fisheries laboratory at Liverpool, under the auspices of
the Lancashire Sea Fisheries Committee. He used the publications
of both these organizations to quote American, Norwegian and
Scottish work, in his efforts to establish marine hatcheries on the
Irish Sea coast. In the report of the Lancashire Sea Fisheries Laboratory for 1892, Herdman (1893) observed that the Fishery Board for
Scotland had tried to prevent the gradual decline of their more valuable
coaatal fisheries by absolute prohibition of beam trawling, and that this
regulation had failed in its purpose. He added . . . “ So they have
now come to the conclusion in Scotland, which had been arrived at
previously in some other countries, that the only thing that will
enable a fishery to recover, when once it has been overfished, is artificial propagation and rearing.”
Herdman was over-optimistic about the value of hatchery techniques
as then practised, and uncritical of I ‘ hearsay ” benefits claimed by
supporters of artificial propagation in other countries. His opinions
prevailed, however, and in 1897 a small hatchery for plaice and
flounder, Plutichthys jiesus (L.), eggs was built at Piel, near Barrow,
Lancashire, financed by the Lancs. Sea Fisheries Committee. This wm
followed by a plaice hatchery a t Port Erin, Isle of Man, in 1902, partly
subsidized by the Manx government, but largely organized by the
Liverpool Marine Biology Committee.
The Port Erin hatchery was equipped with spawning ponds on the
Norwegian and Scottish pattern, and “ Dannevig ” incubators. The
Piel hatchery used the same type of incubator, but lacked spawning
ponds. A limited amount of experimental work preceded the construction of both establishments. Herdman (1897) had reared artificially fertilized eggs of Trigla gzmmrduB L. (grey gumad), Micro-