FISHERY RESEARCH WORK

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18170, 16 August 1922, Page 10

FISHERY RESEARCH WORK

OPERATIONS IN NORTH SEA.

Every success has attended the trials of the Scottish Fishery Board's steamer Explorer. During the trial run, which was from Leith Docks to the mouth of the Firth, a demonstration was given of the operation 'of the otter trawl, which was towed for a considerable distance by the wire cables. Of the Mersey trawler type, and originally built for war purposes, the Explorer has been adapted for scientific research work by Menzies and Company, Ltd., of Leith. The vessel is 138.5 ft. in length, 23.7 ft. 'broad, and 12.8 ft. in depth. The steam winch for lifting and lowering the trawl is placed well forward at the bows. There is, in addition, a room for the examination and weighing of fish brought up by the trawl, while special conduits for sea water for use where specimens have to be kept alive have been fitted. The vessel will sail the North Sea primarily in the interests of science,, but with a view, also, to practical results following a better knowledge olt the fishing grounds. A writer in the Scotsman says the work of the research vessel may be classified broadly as that of providing data of the- temperature and the salinity of the North Sea, and of collecting data relative to the microscopic animal and vegetable life of the sea, and to the size and maturity of the fish captured in different areas. In this way » mass of information will be built up, from which something definite in the way of knowledge of the migration and life history of the fish may emerge. Discoveries relating to the propagation of various kinds of fish have also an important relation to commercial fishing. The Explorer during its trial trip passed over one of the areas where one of the important modern discoveries was made—that the herring spawn lie in masses at the bottom of the sea in the form of a glutinous substance which adheres to the stones and rocks. A similar discovery made in Norway was : that all other fi3h in the North Sea lay eggs which float on the surface, theise being in the form of innumerable little transparent jelly-like units. One of these discoveries enabled the scientists to say to what extent the objections to trawling on the I ground of disturbing the spawn of the fish were well founded.