ThereforCp it appears possible to keep alive a fairly large 

 proportion of the undersized fish by quickly throwing them overboardo 

 Many fishermen think that they cannot do thiso In the first places 

 it is the rule to set the net immediately after the catch has been 

 emptied on deck and it is feared that the trash thrown overboard 

 will immediately get back in the net againo In the second places 

 it is usual to pick out the marketable fish first and then shovel the 

 rest backo Everyone has a strong desire to take the best fish out 

 of the catch first and it will be very difficult and perhaps even 

 impractical to change this working methodo It appears to me un- 

 desirable to order the fishermen to throw the trash back immediate ly^ 

 not only because of the enumerated objections but also because the 

 compliance to such an order cannot be controlledo However;, it is 

 recommended that the fishermen be encouraged to throw back ss much 

 alive undersized fish as possible e I am certain that this will 

 produce some results, especially for the coastal fishery,, the 

 more so since I have seen that several fishermen sorted the catch 

 of plaice on their own initiative in such a way that,, about half 

 an hour after the catch came on board, the undersized fish had been 

 set back in the sea in excellent conditiono They did this by shovel- 

 ing small quantities of fish on a rail table, picking out the market^ 

 able fish and shoving the rest into the seao These fishermen did not 

 believe that these undersized fish went right back into the net which 

 they had set again. Although we are of the opinion that a great 

 many undersized fish may be saved from destruction by careful 

 handling, we must realize that under present methods, most trash, 

 once caught, is dead when put overboard o 



These undersized fish are not lost to the fish stock, haw9^9Tg 

 insofar as they become food for crabs, worms, etoo, and thus encourage 

 the growth of food animals for the fisho Therefore, the trash can be 

 of value for the fish stock especially in an area where lack of food 

 keeps the rate of growth below the maximum© 



Co Rules for the Determination of the Minimum Size 



In the above we have mentioned undersized fish without discussing 

 in which way this size has to be determinedo 



The utimate lower limit is set by the demand that sufficent ej 

 have to be produced each year to keep the fish stock at the desired 

 strength© Although the female fish lays thousands of eggs, the very 

 great natural mortality among the young brood may be brought to a 

 point-=through fishing--which could result in an insufficient number 

 of female maturingo 



Therefore it is necessary to know how many eggs are absolutely 

 necessary, how many females must mature and how long the growing 

 year classes have to be protected to produce this number of mature 

 femaleso The males can be ignored in this discussions they become 

 sexually ripe at a younger age and at a shorter length than the females o 



