37 



It must uot, tlierefore, |irevent us from taking part in the international 

 progress iu fislierv- It does not appear that tlie foreign nations pay regard 

 to snch matters; and to stoji their development is at any rate beyond 

 oiu' power. 



Indeed, we must liope for an international proteetion of the stock of 

 lisli, wliere proteetion is needed; and, no doubt, a prohibition against 

 trawling at certain jtlaces would l)e desirable, perhaps in certaiu months of 

 the year. But a general prohibition against trawling in all the deep parts 

 of our seas will i)resumedly be quite out of the (juestion; for by trawling 

 only, I think, it will be possible to make an adequate profit out of the large 

 deepsea stoek of iiaddock in winter. 



As the trawling in the said seas is not based particularly on plaice, it 

 is my opinion that also the secoud oi)jection, that it sets up a comi)etition 

 with our own fisheries by bringing cheap tish on the market, will be of no 

 greater weight, except perhaps with respect to the cod-fishery. But cod and 

 haddock caught on hook is a far better commodity than the trawl-caught 

 fish, also abroad, and cod takeu iu traps is living. I do not see how the 

 trawl-caught fish, which is to be bought by a quite ditferent class of i)eople, 

 will be able to do any greater harm. But I do see that we projit too liltle 

 hij the roundfi.?h (cod, haddocks, gurnards, etc.) and deep-sea flatfish (pole 

 dåbs) which live iu the deeper parts of our seas, and whose numerousness, 

 through a great part of tlie year, has been proved by the investigations 

 carried on by "Kommissionen for Havundersøgelser", through Dr. A. C. Jo- 

 hansen, on board the steam-trawler Thor. German, English, and Swedish 

 trawlers take, for the present, by far the greater part. Scores of times I 

 have seen the German steamtrawlers pass southward through the Great 

 Belt, bouud for Hamburg, loaded with fish taken iu the immediate neigh- 

 bourhood of our shores, but on international sea-territory. Our territory, it 

 must be remembered, is only 3 miles broad. 



As to the tliird objectiou, that capitalism might possibly acquire an 

 undesirable influence, I shall say only that trawling is the only fishery that 

 can be carried on where the foreign trawlers are (the otter-seine I look 

 upon here as a sort of trawl); everything else will be molested by the 

 trawling vessels. We must trawl, consequently, if we will not quite give 

 up the idea of gettiug some part of the profit. Moreover, it will scarcely 

 be a large fleet of trawlers ^\•e can expect to supply Copenhagen with fish, 

 and as already mentioned, our fishingsmacks with powerful motors will 

 possibly be able to partake in this fisher}'. The latest experiments with 

 such vessels iu Germauy seem to prove that a fishiug-smack with a motor 

 of 16 — 20 H. P. can drag a trawl some 50 feet in width. Finally, one thing 

 more: if the prices for trawl caught fish do not remain high enough in Germany, 

 then the German trawlers can sell their fish in Copenhagen, whenever theij 

 like. No one can forbid them to do so; they are going to Frederikshavn 

 already, now and then, with their catch; and rather than that should 



