Report No. 4 (1921) 





THE FISHERIES OF NORWAY 

 AND DENMARK. 



NOTES GLEANED DURING A VISIT IN 1920 



BY 



JAMES HORNELL, f.l.s., f.r.a.i., 

 Director of fisheries, Madras. 



I.--rRELJMINARY. 



Norway, Japah, and Newfoundlantl are the three countries in 

 the world where fisheries bulk so largely in the national economy 

 that their development is accounted one of the major cares of 

 Government. In Japan the primitive methods of fishing universally 

 employed till recent years, have been elaborated and expanded in 

 a wonderful manner during the past 20 years by the fostering care 

 of the department charged with their improvement ; the central 

 and local Governments have been lavish in their expenditure and, 

 as seen to-day in the enormous expansion of the Japanese fisheries 

 and associated industries, this expenditure has been recouped to 

 the nation many thousand-fold. 



Norway, a much smaller country than Japan, with a sparse 

 population and limited funds at her disposal, has been equally 

 enterprising and, for her resources, even more generous in expen- 

 diture upon development. The problems in Norway have been 

 and are to a large extent different. In Japan, a hermit kingdom 

 till only two generations ago, the world had to be searched 

 for methods that were improvements on the cruder indigenous 

 ones ; Norway on the other hand had a fishing reputation second to 

 none for individual enterprise and for the excellence of the methods 

 pursued. Her fishery fame dates back to the early days of the 

 Hanseatic League, whose long-headed merchant princes, with true 

 Teutonic foresight and power of organization, settled in Bergen and 



