160 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



With regard to the use of other fishing-implements, and the harm which 

 they may possibly do, as well as all other matters pertaining to this sub- 

 ject, I respectfully refer to the memorial of Rasch and Berg treating of 

 the fisheries on the coast of Norway, from the Swedish boundary-line to 

 Langesund, which, on account of the similarity of the localities to the 

 coast of Bohuslan, I consider to be of special value. 1 



So far as Baron UgglcCs proposition is concerned, that, for the. small- 

 herring fisheries, nets of the same size should be used as for the herring- 

 fisheries, 2 experience has sufficiently proved how disadvantageous, not 

 to say impracticable, such nets must often be, the use of which would 

 only seem to be required when extraordinarily large schools of herring 

 come in, the small-herring caught being prepared anchovies; and this 

 same opinion would hold good with regard to Counselor 0. 1 Fdhraeus's 

 proposition that small-herring should be fished for with drag-nets and 

 stationary nets. 3 



The size of the meshes prescribed by a royal ordinance of July 19, 

 1872, for the small-herring nets to be used on the coast of Bohuslan 

 (about 18 meshes to the yard) has called forth several petitions from the 

 fishermen on the central and northern coasts, 4 asking for delay in carry- 

 ing out this ordinance, and setting forth numerous reasons for retaining 

 the present size of the meshes. As this question is doubtless of consid- 

 erable importance, I thought it my duty to gather as much information 

 as possible on this point from the most experienced and best informed 

 fishermen, and to report what I heard. 



"With meshes measuring one-half an inch, the smaller kind of small- 

 herring; which are mostly used for anchovies, cannot, it is said, be 

 caught, as they, unless hindered by larger small-herring clinging in the 

 meshes, can easily escape through meshes of the above-mentioned size ; 

 while the larger herring remain in the meshes, which, in particularly rich 

 hauls, produces several inconvenience, such as — 



1. That the herring which are fast in the meshes hinder, through 

 their weight, the hauling-in of the net. On the southern coast, where 

 the large herring-nets have meshes of very nearly the prescribed size, 

 the small-herring frequently remain in the meshes in such numbers that 

 the net looks like a silvery fur when it is drawn out of the water; and 

 as a net, of course, weighs much heavier when so many fish are con- 



1 H. Rasch and JB. M. Berg, Memorial and Petition drawn up by the Commission ap- 

 pointed by Royal Ordinance of May 28, 1852, for Investigating the Fisheries in the Bay 

 of Christiania and in Langesund ; Christiania, December 31, 1853. 



s New Reports on the Herring-Fisheries, p. 43. 



3 Royal Reply to the Petition of some Fishermen in the Parish of Tanum with regard 

 to the change of section 22 of the fishery-ordinance concerning the implements to be 

 used in the herring fisheries. Ekstrom, Practical Essay, pp. 103, 112. 



4 As long as twenty years ago, a similar petition was sent to the king by the fisher- 

 men of the Tanum parish, asking to be allowed the use of other nets than those men- 

 tioned in the royal ordinance for catching small-herring. At the suggestion of the 

 governor of Goteborg and Bohuslan, this petition was not granted. 



