During the years 1927<=37 they caught just under on©=third of all 

 plaice landed from the North Seao This is about as much as England 

 landed and twice that landed by the Netherlands o During and after 

 the last war our fishermen started to understand the advantages of 

 this method and the number of fishermen using the method is steadily 

 increasingo 



Line trawling is undoubtedly a technique which saves the under=» 

 sized fisho However^ since 1935 this method is practically nowhere 

 in use since it is impossible (time-consuming and expensive baiting 

 of the lines) to compete with the inexpensive trawl fisho This also 

 makes it impossible to renew this method for the protection of young 

 fisho 



ddo Closing of Grounds where Young Fish are Present for Trawling 



This can be done in two ways „ First, certain grounds may be set 

 aside., and by a decree and by constant controlling harmful fishing 

 techniques can be preventedo In the second place, the minimxjm size 

 below which no fish may be landed can be set so high that it would 

 be uneconomical to fish on these grounds o If a fisherman has made a 

 haul on such a spot he will look for other grounds for his next hauls o 



The first rule is possible only if the young fish remain in the 

 same grounds. If the young fish appears first in one place and then 

 in the other^ it will not be practicable to protect it by closing 

 certain grounds o 



Furthermore, the closing of areas for the protection of young fish 

 will be more difficult if considerable quantities of marketable fish 

 are found on the same grounds » The resistance against such a rule 

 would become extraordinarily great if there are marketable species 

 which are less easily caught outside the closed groundso 



In all such cases there is much to be said for protecting the 

 young fish by setting a high minimixm sizeo Generally, the young 

 fish will not be equally distributed over the to=be-closed area, but 

 will be concentrated in certain spots, for instance the shallower 

 areas Tne valuable fish will then generally be found in other 

 places such as deep gullies and holes o The minimxjm size will have 

 to be so high that if a fisherman has accidentally hauled in a 

 concentration of small fish, he will have so much sorting to do and 

 will have so little marketable fish that it will not seem very 

 agreeable to make another haul in the same spoto 



The protection afforded by a high minimum size will undoubtedly 

 be less complete than that of closing the grounds » In such places 

 where the danger of destruction of the young is extremely great, for 

 instance by a very limited area of the grounds where the young fish 



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