HERRING-FISHERIES ON THE COAST OF SWEDEN. 1G3 



of the rise in the price of fish and the greatly-increased means of com- 

 munication, has enlarged this demand very much, 1 which, even twenty 

 years ago, called forth, at the request of the fishermen, a limitation of 

 section 22 2 of the royal fishing-ordiuauce, in consequence of which nets 

 with narrow meshes continued to he used. 3 



The larger portion of the demand for bait 4 is supplied by the large 

 herring-nets, from which bait can usually be obtained all through the 

 winter. When the great herring-nets are laid up, bait-herring are 

 obtained from the two-men's nets, and from other small nets used for 

 catching spring-herring. During the summer, when the demand for 

 bait is less, since most of the fishermen are employed in the mackerel- 

 fisheries, sea-needles, which can be obtained in great quantities from 

 the island of Lreso, mackerel, and small Crustacea (as long as these can 

 be secured) are used as bait. In the autumn, some bait-herring are pro- 

 cured on the southern coast from the "half-nets;" and on the central 

 coast small-herring can then usually be obtained. It is most difficult to 

 obtain bait at the end of summer and the beginning of winter, and there 

 is then occasionally an actual scarcity of it. 



The supply of Crustacea can only fill a small portion of the demand 

 for bait, since a great many are used, and because their favorite places, 

 near the mouth of the Gota River, have been much disturbed by dredg- 

 ing-machines; and, also, because the severe winters destroy many of 

 them. If these animals were more protected, their number could cer- 

 tainly be increased. This, however, is scarcely to be expected, in con- 

 sequence of the changes wrought in the fisheries (at least as far as Bo 

 huslau is concerned) by the recent fishing laws. 



Stationary nets can be used in Bohuslan with advantage only for 

 catching spring-herring, 5 while they spawn, (as also ia the beginning of. 



1 The oft-repeated saying of the fishermen that they would not he able to make a 

 living if they could not catch herring, contains, therefore, much more truth than people 

 are -willing to acknowledge ; and the strict carrying into effect of section 22 of the 

 royal fishing-ordinance, and of the royal ordinance of February 23, 1355, would have 

 beeu a severe blow to the inhabitants of the coast. See 0. 1. I&hrceus, Memorial of De- 

 cember 22, 1854, regarding the Promotion of the Fisheries on the Coast of Bohusliin. 



2 Ordinance of February 23, 1855, for the Better Management of the Fisheries on 

 the Coast of Bohuslan. 



"E. J. E. Uggla, Report on the Salt-Water Fish of Bohuslan for 1859, p. 14; 1860, 

 p. 49; 1861, p. 56; 1862, p. 7; 1864, p. 110; 1865, p. 5. New Reports on the Herring- 

 Fisheries, pp. 40, 41. G. von YMen, Report of the Meeting of Fishermen at Lysekil, 

 Goteborg, 1859, pp. 20, 59. 0. Andersen, The Fisheries of Bohuslan, Frederikskald, 

 1869, p. 14. 



4 Baron Uggla's proposition (New Reports on the Herring-Fisheries, p. 43) is, there- 

 lore, not practicable, because, under present circumstances, the demand for bait can be 

 tilled by the proposed small nets only in exceptional cases, and at a very exorbitant 

 price. 



5 The assertion which, during the first half of the present century, was often made, 

 that it was difficult or impossible to make the use of stationary nets on the coast of 

 Bohusliin general, is proved to be incorrect, among other things by the circumstance 

 that all the great Bohusliin herring- fisheries, with the exception of the last, have been 

 carried on with such nets. 



