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tlilTerenc-u in (|uality betwecii tliese commociities tluit tliey, in my opinion, 

 will uever oompete Id our Danish market. Tliere will always, I dåre say, 

 be people to buy the good, liviug fish; but these tish are and must be looked 

 upon almost as a luxury. I only meution how matters are stauding in 

 Germany, to show that trawhug gives iuferior, but cheap fish; and it is 

 niy opinion now, that many people in Copenhagen will be williug to buy 

 these fish, who, as a rule, uever before had fish on their table. 



It is possible, consequently , provided tliat the gener(d public icill be indined 

 to buy the fish, that it will pay to carry on trawliny from Copenhagen, because 

 loe are sitnated nearer to the fishing-grounds in the North-Sea, the Skager- 

 RacJc, and the Cattegat than most nations: and it ivoidd be a great advantage, 

 particidarly to the less tvealthy part of the population, more especi(dly in Copen- 

 hagen, if cheap fish, even thoiigh of second qualiiy, ivere carried to the market 

 by the trawlers. 



I could imagine now that the iutroductiou of trawling iuto Denmark 

 (whether carried on bj' means of larger steam trawlers or by a uumber of 

 our fishing-smacks, chauged in such a way that they could use small trawls 

 or otter-seines) would be objected to as an injiirious way of fishing: 1) 

 because it destroys the stock of fish; 2) because it will set up a competitiou 

 witli our present fishermen; and, finally, 3) because it will give the manage- 

 ment of the fisheries iuto the bands of capitalists and so produce a 

 uumber of hired people, who would otherwise be independent owuers of 

 their small vessels. 



Note. We have in Denmark for many j-ears heard of trawls and trawling, 

 but only few people here know \vhat a trawl is. We have heard our fishermen 

 complain that foreigners are trawling near our shores, although on international 

 sea-territorj', and thereby preventing their usual fishery with nets and seines. 

 These complaints are nearly all that the general puljlic knows about the trawl. 

 The ideas of injuriousness in general, and of trawling, have thereby become so 

 mixed up in Denmark that it will be no easy task to place them in the rela- 

 tion to one another which sober truth demands. 



It appears, however, that the legislative power labours under so great diffi- 

 culties in laying down a fixed rule for what a trawl is, and what a seine is, 

 that different results have often come out of it. Both of them are more or less 

 hag-formed nets ichich, spread out in different ways, are dragged aloug the botfom. 

 The worst objection we, from a technieal point of view, can raise against the 

 large trawls, used by steamers and large sailing-vessels, is, that it is often 

 impossible for them to bring the catch living on deck and here separate the 

 fish which are fit for use from the useless ones, wliile they are still alive. In 

 other words, they are most fre(juently prevented from i)ladng the fry again in 

 the sea in a live state. This can be done with most of our seines. But these 

 are generally employed on lower water, where it is always easier to get the 

 fish up alive. The trawls, on the other hånd, are usually employed on deeper 

 water, where it mil generally be impossible, with any kind of fishing-gear, to 

 bring the fish living on deck, because the fish suffer too much, already by being 

 bronght to the surface from the deeper water. What is reall}' characteristic of 

 trawling is that it is carried on with large, poweiiul boats, day and night, in 



