404 SECOND INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE, 



D. Atlantic Ocean and Arctic Sea north of G2' N. : Norway 

 and llussia. 



E. Skagerrak and Kattegat : Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. 



F. Western Baltic : Germany, Sweden, and Denmark. 



G. Eastern Baltic. 



1. Southern part, extending to Bornholm and the Gothland bank on 

 the north and to Memel on the east : Germany. 



2. Northern part, including the Gulfs of Finland and Bothnia: 

 Sweden, Russia, and Finland. 



It is impossible, as well as undesirable, to draw a hard and fast line 

 between the areas allocated to the various states, and of course the 

 suggested boundaries are not intended to hinder any nation from ex- 

 tending its researches beyond the special areas agreed upon. 



Biology of Food-Fishes. 



n. 



§ 2. Preparation of charts showing the distribution of plaice, sole, 

 turbot, cod, haddock, and herring in the North and Arctic Seas, and of 

 flounder, cod, sprat, and herring in the Baltic, in their different stages 

 of growth, from the earliest stage which is passed upon the bottom up 

 to the full-grown condition. 



The investigations to this end are to be carried out as often as 

 possible and, as far as possible, with uniform apparatus, e.g. with trawls 

 of different size and mesh, drift-nets, hooks, etc. Measurements of all 

 the fishes caught on each occasion are to be made in such a way as to 

 yield a graphic representation of the relative number of the fishes at 

 every stage of growth. The fullest possible data are to be given con- 

 cerning sex, degree of maturity, and contents of stomach. 



Each fishing operation is to be treated as a scientific experiment, and 

 all the conditions of the experiment are to be carefully recorded (viz. 

 place, depth, nature of bottom, state of water, wind and weather, rate 

 and duration of haul, kind and size of net, etc.). The scheme sub- 

 mitted by Dr. C. G. Joh. Petersen to the Conference may be cited as an 

 example of the journal record of a catch treated in this way. 



§ 3. Efforts should he made to sectire a methodic investigation of all 

 marine food-fishes as ivell as of the most important of those species which 

 make regular migrations from fresh icater to the sea, from the egg up to 

 the full-grown condition, and with reference to development, growth, nutri- 

 tion, reproduction, fecundity, distribution, migrations, and local varieties, 

 and v:ith constant reference to the hydrographic conditions of life. 



