identified cod migration routes. The migration routes of plaice stocks were identified and the deterioration in the North Sea herring fishery was investigated. From this ground-breaking work came theories of fishing and fish population trends that have become international recognised. The laboratory moved to its current site on the cliffs in the Kirkley area 1955. The site was expanded in the 1960s and 1980s to meet the needs of emerging work programmes monitoring the quality of the marine environment. Although the period 1964–1982 probably saw the fullest flowering of fisheries research, per se, at Lowestoft, the increasing awareness of both politicians and the public about the importance of maintaining the quality of the marine environment, meant that an increasing proportion of the work programme of that period was devoted to problems associated with investigating both radioactive and non-radioactive contamination at sea. Conwy laboratory Research at Conwy started in 1918 to find a more effective method of mussel purification. The Conway Corporation mussel purification tanks were taken over by the then Board of Agriculture and Fisheries and research. Research expanded into developing hatchery culture techniques, initially on the native oyster, and subsequently, in the 1960s, on the Pacific oyster, work which now forms the basis of the UK bivalve cultivation industry. The laboratory was expanded in the 70s in order to increase the capacity to research other aspects of shellfish cultivation. This included responsibilities for dealing with ecological and management problems in various shellfisheries. More recent research shifted emphasis away from shellfish cultivation to the ecology of coastal waters and coastal zone management. This work was transferred to the Weymouth laboratory when the Conwy facilities were closed in 2000. Weymouth laboratory The Weymouth laboratory was established in 1969 with four staff, specifically to study the cause of a disease in salmon. The laboratory was expanded in the 1970s and 1980s to investigate serious disease risks threatening the expanding fish farming industry. During the 1980s research shifted towards determining drug residues in fish for human consumption and environmental problems associated with release of medicines from fish farms. Further expansion occurred during the 90s from new inspection and monitoring responsibilities stemming from EC directives. These dealt with marine and freshwater fish health, and microbiological hygiene of molluscan shellfish. This resulted in the existing facilities becoming over stretched. In 1994 a new laboratory, housing state-of the art equipment and the most modern facilities, was