4 
as a rule is the most frequent size, next 7 cm. and then 9 cm. At many places 
in the fjord the oysters are smaller than at others, as 7 cm. is sometimes more 
frequent than 8 cm. (see Table TD); but the time of year has no influence on 
the size at 7—8—9 cm. The localities on Table I are arranged chronologically 
from 83/IV—8/X 07. By far the great majority of the oysters taken by the pole- 
dredge measured 7—-9 cm.; of the larger from 10 to 12 cm. only a few hundred 
specimens were found, and of the lower from 6 to 0 cm. a good many were indeed 
taken hut not nearly so many as of the three sizes 7—9 cm. together. The maxi- 
mum for the oysters taken by the pole-dredge is thus at 8 cm. as a rule, but it 
would be easy to show a number of banks and large parts of others, especially in 
very shallow water, 2—4 feet, where the oysters taken by pole-dredge had their 
maximum at 7 cm. It should be remembered that the last column in Table I 
only gives an approximate picture of the sizes taken by the pole-dredge, as the 
figures of the column have becn arrived at by summing the oysters together from 
localities where they have a somewhat different relative size; the totals show 
however that the average size for oysters taken by the pole-dredge falls 
at 8 cm., 7 cm. coming nearest afterwards and then 9 cm. 
ÅA smaller maximum can be noticed amongst the lower sizes, 6—0 cm., 
at certain localities, for example, at Langer Hage 12. April, Trehuse 8. April and 
Feggeklit in April. This maximum which represents 1 to 2 younger annual groups 
is not always situated at quite the same cm. in the Table; it is most distinct in 
the spring at 2—3 cm., but often becomes less distinct in the course of the sum- 
mer when the small oysters grow up and gradually join on to the large group; 
see for example the Feggeklit measurements. It is not always easy however to 
follow the growth from the Tables; but in nature we can often see the new, thin 
outer margin on the shell which the small oysters have added in the course of 
the summer. It is naturally through the growth of these younger annual 
groups that the large group at 7—9 cm. is maintained throughout the year. It 
represents also the adult oysters, which grow but little but begin to spawn at 6—7 
cm. and die at 8 cm. Tnere seems therefore here, as in so many other animals, 
a certain amount of simultaneousness between the stoppage in growth and appea- 
rance of reproduction. 
It might well be imagined that the presence of so many of these small 
oysters, which we took with the pole-dredge, and also certainly at many other 
places not investigated, was due to too severe a fishery; we know for example 
that the stock of plaice can be over-fished so that only the young, small indivi- 
duals remain: hut there can be aåbsolutely no talk of this as regards the oysters 
in the Lim Fjord; the pole-dredge has not heen used on several of these banks 
by the lessees during the last 7 years, and but little of this kind of fishing on 
the whole has been done in the last 4 years, so that overfishing cannot be thought 
of (see below Appendix A: Statistics of the standard oysters fished by the lessees 
from the season 199% to 199%). During the last four years only 88,000 oysters in 
all have been taken by pole-dredging, and these in Sallingsund, Livø Bredning and 
at Fur; in 1998 and 19%£ no pole-dredging was done. The lessees were able to 
obtain sufficient oysters from the regular boats for dredging and diving. 
The illegal fishery carried on in the Lim Fjord might also be thought ot 
