New Britain herald., 1920-02-02
PEACE TIME BRINGS
 FISHING TO FRONT
Sea Food and Geography That
 Folks Know Little About

Now that the seas are open to the pursuits of peace and the world lis sorely in need of food, many prob lens of ocean geography are likely to be solved in the course of the quest for deep sea rations.
 The ocean literally teens with food. The man who declared that humanity is race of herring -catchers might have OverS1atcd the case, but that the sea abounds in food-fishes and fishes fit for food is we'll is well known. As soon as we begin to study the subject Of ocean fisheries. however, we come up short against the fact that what we really know about the inhabitants of the sea is Startlingly limited.
 1t was not so long ago tha the fish ermen of the North sea believed that whales brought the herring in toward shallow water-a ( conclusion they reached from the observation that schools of herring are frequently found in the vicinity of spouting whales. In 1906 there was a failure of the herring fisheries, and the fish ermen blamed the situation on the Norwegian whaling vessels operating in that region.
 Like Mermaid With Binoculars
 The problem of life in the ocean is  valuable lessons for mankind. Even at the bottom of the deepest trench in the abysmaL region of the seas bot tom, where no ray of the sun ever penetrated. where Stygian night is perpetual where freezing tempera- lures never cease and where incon- ceiVable pressures prevail, the mira cle of life still goes cn.
 Eerie creatures exist in these utter most depths. Here is d fish swim ming by with light-giving organs ranged in rows from nose to tail, on port and slarboard sides, a fantastic miniature Of an ocean liner. alight from stem to stern gliding roiselessly through the perpetual night. There is another with a well-defined search light with which to explore he black ness around, Here is breathing caricature of q, mermaid with binocu- lars, and there creature whose eyes are upon the ends of long stalks reaching out from the head like sun- flowers from the ground
 Likewise: it is still q moot question whether or not modern fishing meth ods tend to dep1ete the supply, and whether artificial propagation of sea fishes is a sufficient counter-m easure. \ few years ago d British commits sion measured the intensity of fish ing operations in the North sea. Trail ing bottles were set adIift and it was found that more than half of them were recaptured. Tn certain loca Hties they were captured at rate that in Clicated go per cent. retaken each season. Marked fish yielded largely similar results. and the conclusion was that a food-fish of adult size had at least three to one odds against it's getting through the year uncaught.
 Little Race Suicide in Ocean.
 .And yet there is little race suicide in the ocean that even such intensive fishing probably has efT.ct upon the available adult supply. For in stance. the female turhOt lays $500 000 eggs a year and the cod has A. 5OO.OOO to her credit. The female founder lays 100000. the sole 510,- OGu. the haddoCk t00,000. and the mace 3Oo.OO0. The poor herring must be content with a meager 31,- coo.
 Much remains 10 he learned about tht migration habits of the worlds food-fiSheS. Where do the salmon go after ti:ey leave the tiVers? Why, does the eelf as discovered soetlme since by the Danes, go far out to sea, far to the south and west of the Irish coast to slawn, and how do the 1 countless hordes of delicate elNerS find l their way around the British Isles and into the continental rivers? 1n- l numerable are the questions like these that the future will reveal to the of a new day.