Abstract
THE economic study of fisheries and fish must always depend largely on quantitative methods such as the numbers of fish caught in relation to the fishing power employed, to the area of ground fished, and to the number of fish that can be adequately fed on this ground. The latter depends largely on the quantity of floating life in the waters at the depths in which the fish feed at different stages of their lives and on the quantity of bottom living organisms. Most fish are bottom feeders, so that the ground organisms are of prime importance. The bottom animals, however, feed mainly on the floating life, which reproduces with such rapidity that it is the chief builder of living matter in the sea. A cycle is thus created from man to the fish, to the bottom living organisms, to the floating forms, and so ultimately to the meteorological conditions, which alone can affect the ocean as a whole. Some of the bottom forms serve as food to fish, while others do not, thus cutting the economic cycle. Some are absolutely inimical to the fish, since they feed on the same food as that required by fish. It thus becomes clear how important and basal is the quantitative and qualitative study of the ground life in relation to economic questions connected with fisheries.
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GARDINER, J. Bottom Fauna of the North Sea. Nature 113, 442–443 (1924). https://doi.org/10.1038/113442b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/113442b0