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CHAPTER 1.
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INTRODUCTOBY.
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General Review of the Resources of the Sea and the Inuence of- Man there0n.
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IN this chapter is a general statement of facts which point
to the conclusion that, with some exceptions, the fauna of the
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open sea, from its nature and environment, would appear, to a
large extent, to be independent of man’s inuence.
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In ëxamining the resOu1*ces of the sea1 we are confronted
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with very different problems from those Which meet us in the
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consideration of the fresh waters and the land.
Moreover, this
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peculiar divergence has a tendency to mislead those whose
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experiences have been accumulated in surroundings in which
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all the operations of nature and of man are readily observed
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and easily understood.
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It
recently since we relied, for instance, on the know—
ledge derived from the effects of the non—protection of
animals as a guide in dealing with the sea—shes.
It satised
some
to urge
that man’s inuence had swep't off the larger
mammals from great areas, and at the present moment is rapidly
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diminishing the numbers of such forms as the right and other
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whales, the elephants, giraffes, elks, buffalos and bisons. Com—
recent legislation in our own country
year by
1 By the sea is meant
ocean and the exposed shows, for
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seas, like the Mediterranean, are placed under different conditions as regards the
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sheries. Consequently the eeet of man’s interference
“in certain cases is
distinguishable—were it only in the single feature of the size of marine shes
for consumption;_
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M. _RQ
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