14 
In the »Jutland Post«, No. 155, year 1873, some information of importance 
is found regarding the oyster fishery in the Lim Fjord in earlier years, in the 
time of the lessees Steenberg, J. C. Jørgensen, M. N. Schibbye and Kløvborg. I 
may cite a portion of this article though it contains several inaccuracies. 
»We recognise the difficulty of giving a picture of the conditions, of which 
only a small portion of the public, who it may be considered will read this, can 
have sufficient local knowledge, as knowledge is necessary here of the earlier 
conditions in the Lim Fjord, especially as regards the fishery, and we therefore believe 
that it will not be out of the way if we first of all recall what these conditions 
were about a generation ago. Until 1825 the water in the western basin of the 
Lim Fjord was fresh, and the fishes were then the usual freshwater species which 
occur in our freshwater lakes; but after the break through of the North Sea at 
Agger in 1825, by which the fjord water became completely salt, all the earlier 
fish im the fjord died out, so that the banks of the fjord were covered hy hundreds 
of loads of dead freshwater fish. Other species now gradually made their appea- 
rance, chiefly plaice and a smaller kind of cod. Oysters were detected in the 
forties, when some fishermen in the western part of the fjord let it be known, that 
they now and then took a kind of shell-fish, as they called them, in their fishing 
apparatus; but they did not bring them forward or laid themselves out to fish for 
them, as they did not know their value at that time. It was only in 1850 that 
the father of the present writer Steenberg, late Agent Steenberg in Nykjøbing, got 
notice of the matter through a fishermen bringing some oysters to Nykjøbing, 
and after obtaining information as to where they had been taken caused the place 
to be more closely investigated. He then obtained a small barrelful, which he 
sent to a personal acquaintance of his in Copenhagen, who stood in close con- 
nection with the Government of that time, together with information as to where 
they had been found. These oysters were found on the north side of Salling in 
Salling Sund so close to the shore, that with the water clear they could be seen 
from a boat and taken up with a rake. They were scattered ahout singiy, not in 
beds, and as the opportunity arose he got the fjord better investigated and thus 
found oysters at other places, especially in Harrevig somewhat further to the 
west, also single scattered oysters but nowhere in beds. 
»The Government now took up the matter, prohibited the oyster fishery 
in the fjord and in 1851 privately let out this fishery over the whole tjord for 3 
years to Agent Steenberg in Nykjøbing, Kammeraad Lykke in Thisted and Justits- 
raad Claudi in Lemvig at a rent of 300 Rd. yearly. This contract was on run- 
ning out again renewed for 3 years to the same men, and then Agent Steenberg 
took it over alone for 4 years until 1861, Then the contracts were auctioned for 
a period of 10 years and the fjord on this occasion was cut up into 5 divisions, 
namely: from the east as far as Løgstør (1st division), the large Livø Bredning 
(nd division), the stretch through Salling Sund down to Struer (3rd division), 
Thisted Bredning including the stretch west of Mors to Ottesund (4th division) 
and Nissum Bredning from Ottesund west to Agger Canal (dth division). Of these 
the writer's father Steenberg rented the 2nd and 3rd divisions and the under- 
signed Kløvborg, Jørgensen and Schibbye the 4th and 5th divisions. 
»During the first 10 years, from 1851 to 1861, when Steenherg in part 
