Some Experiments on the Possibility of combating 

 the harmful Animals of the Fisheries, especially the Whelks 



in the Limfjord. 



In 1909 a »Committee to combat the harmful animals of the fisheries« 

 appointed b}' the Dansk Fiskeriforening, pubhshed a short report on this matter, 

 and the Council of the Fiskeriforening submitted a proposal to Landbrugsministeriet 

 that funds might be allocated for this purpose. The matter was sent to me for 

 explanatiou and this explanatiou, witli but few changes, was as follows. 



»The Committee in including 5 animals ou the list of harmful animals, 

 namely, the sea-scorpion, stickleback, crabs, star-fish and whelks, have 

 specially relied upon § 40 of the Fishery Law regarding rewards for the bringing 

 of star-fishes to land in the Limfjord, and desire that this § shall be extended to 

 enibrace among others the 5 animals meutioned and to apply to the whole of the 

 Danish sea-territory. I may remark to this, that this § is on the' whole not well- 

 grounded; its persisteuce in the law is only due probably to some old regulations 

 for the oyster-dredgers, who were meant to laud the star-fishes they fished. This 

 old regulation has never beeu carried into effect, so that we know nothing at all 

 as to its usefulness. We thus have no available material to build upon, and be- 

 fore we can obtain such, we should proceed experimentally, that is to say, 

 undertake such experiments on the extermination of the harmful animals as will 

 in the course of a few years afford information which would show, 

 whether they have helped to reduce the numbers of these animals or 

 not. It it just as important to obtain the last, negative result from the experi- 

 ments as the positive; as otherwise it may happen with this as with the artificial 

 hatching of saltwater fishes in other countries, that much mouey has been spent 

 for a long series of years, but no result has ever been noticed, whether the ex- 

 periments have been of use or not. I consider that it was a good thing for Den- 

 mark, that I at that time opposed such unripe experiments on a large scale and 

 thus saved the State unnecessary expenditure, and instead endeavoured to find 

 some other ways of increasing the quautities of fish in our small waters, namely 

 by the inplanting of young fish from the sea. These results could be controlled; 

 at some piaces they were an advantage, at others not. 



However much I may desire with the Committee to see the numbers of 

 the harmful animals mentioned reduced at many piaces, since they cannot all be 



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