INTERNATIONAL REGULATIONS OF FISHERIES ON THE HIGH SEAS. 147 
lect, with as little delay as possible, sufficient information, scientific as well as statis- 
tical, with regard to the damage done by the capture of undersized fish by their fish- 
ermen. 
That the National Sea Fisheries Protective Association be requested to formulate 
a set of questions with a view to obtaining scientific and statistical information in rela- 
tion to undersized fish and forward it to each delegate, in order that he may submit 
it to his Government for adoption. 
No international action has yet come of this conference, but several of the 
nations have acted independently in the matter and interdicted the sale of 
undersized fish. 
The Belgian Government, by royal decree dated September 5, 1892, pro- 
hibited fish under certain sizes from being landed, transported, sold, or exposed 
for sale in Belgium, without distinction as to the place of capture (sans dis- 
tinction de leur provenance) or as to the nationality of the boat which caught 
them. The sizes specified are 25 centimeters for turbot, brill, ray, halibut, 
cod, and haddock, and 18 centimeters for soles, dab, plaice, and whiting, these 
measurements covering the extreme length of the fish. 
Somewhat similar provisions were enacted in Denmark by law of April 5, 
1888. The declaration of 1907, supplementary to the convention of 1899 
between Sweden and Denmark, which restricted the capture and sale of plaice 
under a designated length, has already been noted at length in the discussion 
of that convention. Other states with undersize fish laws are France, Ger- 
many, Holland, Sweden, Norway with reference to lobsters, England with ref- 
erence to lobsters and crabs, and many of the American states, especially with 
respect to crustaceans and mollusks. 
The principal effect in Great Britain of the conference of 1890 was the 
appointment of a select committee in the House of Commons to consider the 
expediency of adopting measures for the preservation of the fisheries “in the 
seas around the British Islands, including the prohibition of the capture, land- 
ing, or sale of undersized sea fish, the prohibition of the sale or possession of 
certain sea fish during the periods when their capture is forbidden, the fixing 
of close seasons, the prohibition or regulation of certain methods of fishing, 
the protection of defined areas, and other like regulations, international or 
otherwise.”’ 
For the purpose of determining the best regulations for preserving the 
fishery resources with the maximum extent of their utilization, it is not easy 
to exaggerate the importance of systematic research in marine biology and the 
effect of fishing operations. Excellent work of this nature has been done and 
is yet in progress in many countries where the fisheries are of great extent. 
@ Section 15 of this law provided that no trade may be carried on in Bornholm salmon under 3 
pounds, trout under one-half pound, cod under one-fourth pound, and turbot under one-half pound; 
and section 56 of the same law prohibited the purchase and sale of eels, pike, and salmon less than 12 
inches; of cod, whiting, plaice, turbot, brill, bream, tench, trout, and gwiniad less than 8 inches; and 
of dab, flounder, perch, and bleak less than 6 inches measured from the point of the fore snout to the 
root of the caudal fin. 
