Report of the commissioner for 1878 : part VI.

  • United States Fish Commission.
Date:
1880
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the commissioner for 1878 : part VI. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    251/1174 (page 149)
    called knowledge of tlie trade, or, in other words, the science of the trade. The science of the fisheries, i. e., the knowledge of how to carry on the fisheries, fully developed and arranged as a whole, forms the science of fishing, properly so called, and in proportion as it is really scientific, fish- ing becomes a branch of natural science. In order to make the necessary technical investigations, a good knowl- edge of natural science is required as well as a special knowledge of those branches of natural science which form the theoretical foundation for the special science of the fisheries. § 13. As fishing requires a knowledge of the mode of life and other characteristics of fish as well as of the fishing-waters, so fishing carried on as a trade requires a knowledge of the laws of economy. We there- fore need an economy of the fisheries just as much as their practical and scientific knowledge, although the latter is certainly an essential condi- tion of the former. A wise administration must never favor one trade at the expense of another which is just as important or perhaps even more so, thereby bringing about a conflict of interests which cannot in any way be bene- ficial to the state. The fisheries must therefore be considered in their relation to other trades and occupations, especially agriculture and nav- igation, the general welfare of the state, the means of communication, &c. Special regard should also be had to the changed circumstances of our times incase the great herring-fisheries should again be revived; which event, strange to say, has for nearly half a century been rather considered as a curse than as a blessing for Bohuslan.7 The social ques- tion of our coast will, therefore, likewise have to be considered—a ques- tion whose solution may puzzle our wisest men. All this becomes the subject of a special branch of knowledge, which might be termed u the economy of fisheries,” whose aim would be to promote the fisheries by working up the various scientific methods and corroborating their use- fulness by practical experiments, always considering the economical value of the fisheiies for the public as the foundation on which all improve- ments in the fishery-laws and the administration of the fisheries should be based. The fisheiies should therefore form the subject of the most thorough and exact treatment even from an economical point of view, and this all the more as the want of such treatment has doubtless been the chief cause of the insufficiency of our fishery-legislation. § 14. The investigations must, furthermore, extend to the whole subject of law and administration; for since their purpose is to gain that knowl- edge which is necessary tor carrying on and superintending the fisheries in the most efficient manner, attention must not be diverted from this object or extended beyond its limits. As such a course would only delay 7 A. V. Ljungman: “ Nagra Ord ora de stora bohus-Uinska sillfiskcna ” Gottenlmrg, 1877, p. 28