39 
haps before they became abundant at all places. Starting from these new principles 
we see that all removal of adult oysters »for transplantation« in the Lim, Fjord is 
meaningless.. Nature can well look after the spat itself and the Lim Fjord is 
swarming with these when the temperature is suitable. For the same reason the 
formation of ponds for adult oysters in the Lim Fjord is superfluous, so long 
namely as the oysters spawn in millions in the fjord. The serious qustion 
here is to help more of the immeasureably great quantities of the spat 
to become full-grown oysters than now happens; since obviously by 
far the greatest part of the spat and of the just fixed young oysters 
perish, because they fix themselves on unsuitable places, are sought after by so 
many different enemies etc. It is so much the more advisable to aim at this, 
since it is perhaps not every year that the temperature in the Lim Fjord is 
sufficiently high to permit of the oysters spawning in large quantities; if a more 
intense fishery is agreed upon this must be carefully watched. Further, it is far 
from being the whole area the adult oysters can live in which is specially suited 
to the production and further development of the small fry. As mentioned before 
it seems to be especially the warm shallow waters which are suited in summer 
for the welfare of the fry. Here some preliminary experiments should he made, 
only on a somewhat greater scale than I have hitherto experimented, to take the 
spat on collectors and bed them out before ihe winter on closed areas in deeper 
water and study their further fate and thus the possibility on the one hand, of 
recruiting on a large scale the stock of the fjord if such should be necessary, and 
on the other, of experimenting whether certain banks could be used for a more 
rapid growth of the young oysters. Such experiments would cause little. expense 
and if successful and thereupon carried out on a larger scale would be remune- 
rative.. They might also perhaps be made by private owners on their own small 
banks just as is done in Holland, amongst other countries. I shall not enter into 
the details of the arrangement of this matter either; what I wish to do in the first 
instance is to bring the whole matter of the oyster fisheries in the Lim Fjord 
into the full light of the new experiences both scientific and historical which are 
now available. 
What may in time be obtained from the Lim Fjord oyster fisheries if the 
right methods are introduced, no one can say; but in Holland ca. 25 millions of 
oysters are obtained yearly from areas which are only ca. "/;th of the area of our 
banks. I may warn against believing that we can reach up to numbers such as 
these; but it is indeed a long spring from 1 million oysters to 25 millions on an 
area of one-fifth the extent. 
The Future. 
The oyster fishery in Denmark has always been considered as crown pro- 
perty, and the Government has therefore had the free disposal of its exploitation, 
has it in fact even now. The State should therefore obtain some good return 
yearly, the size of which is determined partly by the foreign oyster market, the 
existing import duties, the pleasure and pocket of the public and the productivity 
of the Lim Fjord. Of these 4 factors the foreign market is to a certain extent of 
6 
