10 
pared with the present 8 X 3 cm., I got some of the former size forged and Table 
Ia shows the result for the oysters taken hy pole-dredge, and Table III and INa 
for those obtained by diving. Of the 1612 pole-dredge oysters investigated by 
both standards the large gave only 178 standards the small on the other hand 
749 or quite 4 times as many. It kept almost all the oysters of 9 cm. in length, 
somewhat over the half of the 8 cm. and hut few of those at 7 cm.; the last 
because they were fairly thick and could not therefore go through the standard. 
Just for this reason the standard was made like a frame, as these small, thick 
oysters are old and grow no further. 
From the purely practical aspect this standard gave very fine saleable 
oysters, the smallest of which apart from cousideration of the price 1 would rather 
eat than the large; their shells are clean and solid, not double nor containing evil- 
smelling water, as is often the case wlth the large oysters. 
Table III shows that of 3318 oysters obtained by diving which were 
measured, 1485 were standards according to the large standard, but 2520 accor- 
ding to the smaller; thus well towards the double. As the oysters taken by dredge 
and diving are always longer and thicker than the pole-dredge oysters, the dispro- 
portion under the large present standard is not so great in their case as for the 
oysters taken by pole-dredge; but with the small standard nevertheless, a. boat 
would quickly fish almost twice as many oysters as it does now. As these smaller 
oysters are considerably younger than the large, the stock would he renewed all 
the more quickly, and the introduction of such a standard would prevent so many 
oysters dying of old age, such as is now the case. How large the production of 
the fjord would increase through this apparently small reduction of the standard 
size, it is impossible to say; but with the same number of fishermen and the same 
amount of work, the catch would at once be doubled. 
If m 1886 the standard for oysters had been reduced this one cm. instead 
of total closure for 4 years being enforced, things would certainly have been much 
better. I shall endeavour here to show that the stock in the fjord without its 
productivity being lessened may be considered as capable of supporting such a 
more severe fishing. 
Sample dredgings can only give a momentary picture of whether many 
or few oysters can be fished on a bank; this may be covered by dead zostera so that 
the dredge takes hardly any oysters even though many may be there. On sandy 
bottom also the oysters are said to he able to lie buried in holes formed by them- 
selves, over which the dredge passes without taking the oysters. If poor results 
are thus obtained from dredging, great care must be taken in drawing conclusions 
as to the richness or poverty of the oysters banks. Even if the dredge is working 
ag well as it can, yet it springs over a number of oysters, so that sample dred- 
gings can never show how many oysters there actually are on a definite limited 
area. It is quite different with pole-dredging and diving. In fishing with the 
pole-dredge stakes can be driven into the ground and all the oysters between these 
fished up. Ås the area between the stakes can be easily measured it is possible 
to calculate how many oysters there are per square foot of ground. I have made 
some trials in this direction during the year and found for the west side of Fegge- 
klit that there was approximately one oyster to each 40 square feet; ca. 11,200 
