that of the haddock stocko The percentage of the category "small* 

 has also barely increased for the cod, while that of the haddock 

 has increased (See table 7) » 



Although the cod stock was fished somewhat too intensely and 

 has declined in productive power, its situation appears much better 

 than that of the haddock stocko Yet, both species are fished in 

 the same way with the same shipso Somehow, then, in some way, 

 the cod must have a natural protectiono Probably this protection 

 is due to the fact that the 3 to 5 year-old cod appear much on 

 rocky bottom where they are more difficult to catch j and that such 

 cod do not concentrate in large schools as do haddock of the same 

 age, and that perhaps they leave the bottom from time to time in 

 pursuit of herring schools* 



cco Plaice 



The sximmary of the total catches of plaice (table 5) shows a 

 different picture than that for cod and haddocko We do find some 

 decrease in the landings before 1914 and a great decrease during 

 World War lo However, the landings do not reach their highest value 

 until the period 1927-30, and especially during 1929o Thereafter, 

 a continuous decline is presento There are several reasons why the 

 greatest returns came so many years after the waro 



In the first place, a variation of the influence of the war 

 years on large and small plaice was res pons ibleo The small plaice 

 is distributed along the coasts of Belgium, Holland, and Denmark, 

 chiefly in the Heligoland Bight# This area was fished more inten- 

 sively during the war years than the far-off fishing grounds in the 

 North Seao Therefore, the young plaice was caught in great quantities 

 while the older plaice remained untouched in the deeper parts© When 

 the North Sea was opened to the fishery again after the war, it was 

 chiefly large plaice that were landedo This can be seen from the 

 decline in the percentage of "small" in the catches (table 7) o The 

 coastal grounds were fished with comparatively little intensity and 

 there was a crowding of growing young fish, produced by the larger 

 plaiceo Therefore, the coastal areas were populated densely after 

 1918 and the rate of growth declined. Before too long, the larger 

 plaice had been caught and the fishing industry again had to depend 

 on the younger year classes o Because of the small rate of growth, 

 only a small percentage of the younger classes were marketable, and 

 these could not give a great increase to the catches o When they 

 began to form a larger percentage of the catches, their density caused 

 a considerable increase in the catches, 



A second reason was the enormous increase of the Danish fishery 

 (table 4), which also showed a maximum landing of plaice in 1929© 

 Plaice fishing increased also in other countries o During that period, 

 the Dutch luggers began to trawl for plaice i and with the decline 

 of the cod and haddock, small steam trawlers went back to coastal 

 fishing o 



