It can be seen that with the increase of the fishing intensity, 

 the catches in the three areas increased alsoo Generally, therefore, 

 there can be no reason for apprehsnsiono That the fish stock of 

 the Barents Sea has not declined appears from the fact that the 

 English catch=per=-hour fishing increased from 405 kilograms in 

 1924 to 820 kilograms in 1938© The increase must be due to 

 the enlarged fishing capacity and a better knowledge of the 

 fishing grounds o "The great difference between the two amounts 

 makes it probable that the density declined little or not at alle 



It appears to us that these areas and certainly the Barents 

 Sea are capable of delivering much more fisho The statistics 

 show that there is a state of underfishingo The area of the 

 Barents Sea^ Spitsbergen and Bear Island are more than twice 

 as large as the North Sea, have very good feeding grounds and 

 until now have not yet delivered as much as the maximvim produc- 

 tion of bottom fish from the North Seao 



Not all species may be included in the conclusion that the 

 Barents Sea can deliver greater quantities of fisho The plaice 

 stock here may be overfished very easily and even faster than 

 in the North Se&g probably since the best places for the growing 

 of young are scar ceo Jfhen the Eaglish began to fish in the 

 Barents Sea, in the beginning of this century, they were tempted 

 chiefly by the excellent catches of plaice© The catches increased 

 rapidly from about 2 million kilograms in 1906 to 15 million 

 kilograms in 1909o Then they declined from 5o5 million kilograms 

 in 1912 to 3 million kilograms in 1913o The plaice was protected 

 after the first World Tfarj when Russia forbade foreign ships from 

 fishing within 12 miles off the Murmansk coasto The spawning 

 areas for the plaice were in this area© Nowadays, tho quantity 

 of plaice brought by non^Russian trawlers from outside this 

 zone varies from 2 to 4 million kilogramis per year© 



bo Regulations 



Although there is no danger for these stocks, it is to the 

 interest of the future industry to limit the catching of tinder= 

 sized fisho Sometimes considerable quantities of undersized fish 

 are caught in these areas„ frequently up to 50 percent© Since 

 it is harder to keep the small fish in good condition, those 

 trawlers which do not have fish meal installations on board will 

 avoid these grounds o A large minimum mesh width for the cod end 

 will be of influence in the protection of the young fisho The 

 International Conference of minimum fish sizes and mesh widths 

 held in London in 1937 set a minimum mesh width of 10o5 centi- 

 meters for the areas North of 66 No^ and East of Greenwich 

 Meridiano Later, in 1946, the Icelandic waters were included© 



U 



