It was believed that the outer zone could be left open during 

 Aprilp May and June since the majority of the younger fish are still 

 in the inner zone© During those months, great quantities of fine fish 

 can be caught in the outer zone© 



Based on the German obsenrationSj, mentioned above, an amendment 

 was added latere The German scientist proposed to open both zones 

 during the months of January,, February, November and Decembero In 

 this period good catches of roundfish can be made in the areas while 

 few plaice will be caughto They also believe that the outer zone 

 would not need to be closed during March, since at that time there 

 are no young plaice (see figo lljyo On the basis of observations 

 made between the lightships of Borkum and Norderney they also found 

 it desirable to have the outer zone extended to the east Frisian 

 coasto 



The regulation that ships of less than 50 horsepower could not 

 be forbidden to fish the zones was added to prevent the coastal 

 fishery from being discontinuedo Most of the coastal ships are not 

 seaworthy enough to fish regularly outside the zones o However, this 

 regulation caused the British Trawl Federation to refuse its coopera^ 

 tiono They would not agree to the idea that some ships could fish 

 in the zones o We, too, believe that it would be very undesirable to 

 allow the small ships to fish at will in the protected areas o The 

 gear of these small ships has become increasingly destructive since 

 1925o Some of the small ships even use the Vigneron=Dahl neto 

 Many of the "betters* were the worst offenders in fishing for trash 

 fish to be used for fishmeal before the last ware We think that 

 the plan can only become effective if all trawl fishing were for- 

 bidden inside the zones o Seine fishing could be allowed, as practi- 

 oally no undersized fish are damaged by this methodo Ho-wever, many 

 coastal fishermen would not be able to convert their ships for seiningo 

 The ships are too small for this purpose and the fishermen lack the 

 knowledge necessary to use this difficult fishing techniquoo Closing 

 of the coastal zones would be a hard fate for themo It needs to be 

 considered if it is necessary for the retaining of the plaice stock 

 to impair the small coastal fishermen so badly© 



We have seen that it is not practical to save the non^marke table 

 plaice with the aid of a minimijm mesh widtho The protection has to 

 be mads by preventing the fishing on grounds where the young plaice 

 is concentratedo In addition to closing of a certain area, this can 

 also be done by making it unprofitable to fish on such grounds. This 

 can b e don« by setting the minimum size so high that the catches will 

 consist of a very high percentage of undersized fish and the time 

 spent on culling the nets will not be worth the profits© Such a 

 regulation has a great advantage since it is more elastic© Figure 11 

 shows that a not inconsiderable part of the undersized plaice appears 

 outside the zones during July and September© These plaice would not 

 be protected by the closing of areas, as proposed in 1925, but would 



