No. 4^921) FISHERIES OF DENMARK 33 



total number of fishing craft of all sizes and classes was 16,370. 

 Of these 7,795 were small open boats used for inshore fishing, 3,914 

 were sailing boats and 4,661 were motor boats. The value of the 

 last named was Kr. 29,377,383, while that of the row-boats and 

 sailing boats together was only Kr. 2,656,335. As many as 544 of 

 the motor boats were over 15 tons, valued at Kr. 12,783,000 (say an 

 average value of Kr. 23,500= Rs. 17,600 each) ; 1,129 were between 

 5 and 15 tons and 2,988 were under 5 tons net register. 



X.— THE SNURREVAAD OR DANISH DEEP-SEA SEINE. 



Denmark of all north European seaboard countries with import- 

 ant fisheries, is the only one that does not employ the steam 

 trawler in her home waters. In its place the Danish fishermen 

 have brought to perfection a form of net called by them the 

 Snurrevaad and by others the Danish seine. It is used largely for 

 the capture of plaice and haddock; the Danes consider it has many 

 advantages over the trawl for comparatively shallow waters and 

 their belief seems justified by the wonderful success of the great 

 fleet of motor-cutters that employ it almost exclusively in their 

 operations. In 1919 there were 5,401 of these nets in use, of a total 

 value of Kr. 4,048,000. 



Esbjerg, the chief Danish fishery port, is the home of the 

 Snurrevaad, for it boasts the possession of a homogeneous fleet of 

 nearly 400 motor cutters and yawls, almost all using this net. In 

 J 919, this fleet landed 18,922 tons of fish at Esbjerg. Of this 2,205 

 tons were sent to the provinces, 2,000 tons to Copenhagen ; of the 

 remainder Germany took n.6oo tons, England 3,000 tons and 

 Sweden 117. Haddock accounted for 13,672 tons of the fish landed 

 at Esbjerg, plaice coming next with 4,940 tons. 



I dwell specially upon these statistics because it appears to me 

 that the methods of fishing found successful in Denmark are those 

 which will serve our purposes best in the development of the 

 coastal fisheries of Madras. I feel that for various reasons we are 

 not ready for steam-trawling in Madras ; the leap from the cata- 

 maran and the canoe to this great engine for the wholesale capture 

 of fish is too great and too sudden. Hence I look for guidance to 

 Denmark, where the industry has developed on lines totally 

 different from what it has done in Great Britain. It may be that 

 the British have taken a longer view than the Danes ; they have 

 had the imagination and enterprise to put greater capital into the 

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