19 



(Proceediugs of the Acad. of Nat. Se. of Philadelphia 1908. Jau. pp. 3—10 with 

 5 Piates), which explains, how the larger whelks can open large mussels and eat them. 



That it is the month of June especially, which shows the greatest numbers 

 of whelks caught, is certainly connected with the faet, that at this time the ma- 

 jorit}- of the whelks have just deposited their eggs; and it is a well-known pheno- 

 meuon, that for many species of auimals the feeding time as a rule succeeds the 

 spawuing time. — 



If now we are not disposed to beheve, that the whelks of themselves 

 will decrease in numbers, then the above iuvestigations indicate clearly, that 

 June and a part of July are especially the months when they might 

 be fished for with the greatest success by means of the hive-traps. It 

 is possible indeed that we might be able to find a still better method of fishiug 

 them; but so long as we do not know of such a method, we eannot take it into 

 cousideration. As we must remember, that the quantities of the whelks in Thisted 

 Bredning amount to at least ea. 20,000 barreis, it will probably not be of any 

 use to fish less than about the half or third during the year, and it must 

 also be remembered, that the fewer the whelks beeome, it will be so much the 

 more difficult to get many of them. In other words, about 74 or 50 times more 

 whelks must be fished in the month of June than the motorboat has taken this 

 past year in June; or if we also include July in the fishiug period, 25 — 40 boats 

 must work just as hard iu two months as this one boat has worked. If we 

 imagined, that the fishermen in Thisted would spend 1 to 2 months in fishing 

 whelks with a subvention from the State of 2 Kr. per barrel of whelks fished, 

 the expense would amount to 10 to 20,000 Kroner per 3'ear, thus much more 

 than the inplanting of plaice in Thisted Bredning costs. It would thus be much 

 better to iuplant more plaice into the Bredning, if this can support 

 more than the 60 per hectare it now gets. It is so difficult to combat the 

 whelks even in Thisted Bredning alone, so long as we have not found any other 

 method of fishing whioh can perhaps give other results, or until we have found 

 some profitable use for the whelks themselves, so that the fishery would at 

 least for a great part pay itself. And yet we must consider these whelks 

 (BuccinumJ as much easier to combat than other animals, which might in 

 masses suddenly come wandering into the fjord or as j'oung drift in with the 

 current (star-fishes), or as adult swimmiug fish (stickleback.?). I am incliued 

 to believe, that the fight against the harmful animals of the fisheries is much more 

 difficult than is usually imagined; but one thing is certain, the matter must be 

 investigated separately for each single species and regard taken of the 

 methods of capture available at the time and the possible methods of 

 making use of the products. These iuvestigations show to the full, how useless 

 is the system of rewards for the whelks brought on land on a small scale. It 

 would be much more profitable to think out some way of avoiding the 

 damage the whelks do, by giving the fishermen the right to make 

 certain regulations with regard to the gill-net fishing especially in the 

 warm months, as for example, that the interval between the times the 

 nets are taken up should not be too long; I have often heard wishes put 

 forward by the fishermen on this matter; but I need not en ter f urther into this 



