FISH LIFE EXPERT

Evening Post, Issue 89, 17 April 1933, Page 5

FISH LIFE EXPERT

LATE DR. SCHMIDT

SCIENTIFIC SERVICES

Mr. A. E: Hefford, Chief Inspector of Fisheries, has written for "The Post" tho following appreciation of the work of the late Dr. Johannes Schmidt, whose recent death in Denmark has been announced: —

Professor Johannes Schmidt had become widely known outside the circles of biological science as tho. man who succeeded in solving the mysterious problem of the whereabouts of the spawning places of the European freshwater eel. From its earliest embryonic stages, discovered in the depths of the Atlantic Ocean in the neighbour-hood-of the. Bermuda Islands, he had traced its successive larval stages across practiealy the whole width of the Atlantic Ocean up to the coasts 0/ European countries, where they arrivo after a nearly three years' migration to enter the river mouths as "elvers" or "glass eels.'' He had shown that there was only bno species of European eel, although., its liability to variation according to sex, age, and surroundings had previously misled many ichthyologists. He showed also' that the' American species of fresh-water eel, though distinct from the European species, nevertheless resorted to the. same region to spawn. He proceeded to deal with the distribution of the fresh? water eels of the- whole world and threw a new light on many problems connected with the classification and occurrence of the species belonging to this family, including the tw» New Zealand species. Before specialising on eels, however, Dr. Schmidt had carried out important researches on sea fishes, especially in tha Iceland and Faro Island regions, charting the spawning localities and. tracing the development and migrations of tho young and adolescent stages of such, species as the cod, haddock, ling, plaice, etc. MYSTERY OF THE EEL. Professor Schmidt was perhaps th» first to demonstrate" satisfactorily • the importance of the physical factors- of temperature and salinity of the.water in their effect on the spawning migrations of marine fishes. It was in fact this conception that provided ,the key to the solution of' the problem of tho locality of the youngest stages'of the eel, and provided an explanation of the limits of distribution of various eel species and the cause of the absence of fresh-water eels in some parts of tho world, such as the North Pacific coast of America and the South Atlantia regions of the same Continent. His first .visit to New Zealand i» ■1926 was on a world ■ voyage undertaken while convalescent from a serious illness. Nevertheless, while thus nominally resting from his , seientifie labours, ho was able to throw far more light on the biology of our Antipodean, species than had hitherto been accomplished. He did so by the application of methods of research that ho had evolved and tested in connection with, his studies of other species. The Royal Danish, Research ship, Dana, on its two-year cruise ijound tho world, with Professor Schmidt in/ charge, called at Auckland and Wellington in 192 D. The full scientific results of that expedition are a harvest still to be fully reaped when,the mass of data collected have been worked up and reported . upon. 'It afforded interested New Zealanders an object lesson in what was being done in the pursuit of oceanographical science and fishery research by a small but highly civilised nation." 1

, Contemplating h^. last^worid voyage in that little ship,' as'well as~his earlier fishery research cruises, n the-Atlantic Ocean from the frozen Arctic seas to beyond the Equatorial latitudes, it would appear that the spirit of .the old Vikings of our common ancestry, as well as the inimitably progressive aspirations of a' whole-hearted service to science animated Johannes Schmidt and his fellow pioneers who have devoted -their energies to extending tha bounds of human knowledge in the direction of solving "the secrets of tfa* sea." j- •■ •' '.. ■ „:'.;■' •.. •:,■':■':'; .-:,1 '■