9 - Steady state yield

Summary

This is the first practical lesson of our enquiry: that precise formulation of the problem for the North Sea plaice confirms what so many … deliberations have frequently stated, namely that there is ample room for improvement in the plaice fishery.

Raymond Beverton 1952

The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) did not meet during the Second World War but, as Maurice had anticipated in 1938, it was kept alive in no small part by the strong hand of President Hjort (see chapter 6). Following the tense 1939 meeting in Berlin, Hjort called an emergency meeting of the ‘senior delegates’ from Denmark and Sweden to discuss the future of ICES (Went 1972b p. 94). Acting with the support of those discussions, Hjort encouraged the staff in Copenhagen to continue the work of ICES throughout the war. Not only would a report on administrative matters be completed, but also several scientific reports that had been in preparation were published. Importantly, the plans to create a new publication that had been made during the Berlin meeting were carried forward, with the first number of Annales biologiques appearing in October 1943. Designed by Russell to record ‘all results of importance for the understanding of the fluctuations in the marine populations as well as their conditions of existence and changes,’ (Hjort 1943 p. 6) the Annales would provide just the type of information that would be needed to recover the lost momentum when the war ended.