The herring fishery near Iceland is now just growing and 

 there is no question of overfishing hereo 



bo Regulations 



!rtie Netherlands fishery biologists until nowj, have not taken 

 part in the research of distant fishing grounds o It is, therefore, 

 impossible to give an independent opinion on necessary protection 

 measurements o As for the North Sea^, mesh=width determinations 

 supported by minimum sizes for fish will have a good effect for 

 this areao It is especially important to protect the young plaice 

 and halibut and in this area it can probably be done best by the 

 closing of the Faxa Bay to the trawl fisheryo 



Faxa Bay is in an area southwest of Iceland where much 

 young haddock;, plaice and halibut grow up and there are not so 

 many objections to the closing of this area as there were for 

 most of the grounds in the North Seao The Icelandic coastal 

 fishery is not a trawl fishery and would not be hindered by 

 such a closingo The organization of Icelandic fishermen is 

 strongly in favor of the closingo Moreoverj the bay is compara- 

 tively small and has much traffic so that the control would be 

 easier than that of a long coastal regiono Finally^, the bottom 

 fauna is abundantj, thus insuring sufficient available food for 

 the growth of a large fish stocko The nearness of the fishery 

 in Icelandic waters also contributes greatly to the enforcement 

 of protective measures o 



2o Northeast Atlantic Area 



ao Progress of the Fishdngo 



fhe fish stocks of the Barents Sea^ the Spitsbergen area. 

 Bear Island^ and the area before the Norwegian coastj, are 

 closely connected and probably must be taken as one fiah stocko 



Table 20 shows the quantity of fishp for five year periods, 

 landed annually from the areas of the Barents Sea^ Spitsbergenp 

 Bear Island and from the Norwegian coasto Since we do not possess 

 Russian data^ the statistics are incomplete„ particularly those 

 from the Barents Seao Considering the Russian catches j, they 

 probably will have to be increased by 25 percento Changes 

 made in the partition of fishery areas during the period 1906-39 

 in the statistics tables of the International Council are 

 responsible for the fact t'nat the numbers will not be altogether 

 comparable o We believe^ however^ that they give a fairly good 

 overall picture and that is sufficient hereo 



