118 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



THE COAST-FISHEEY OX THE COAST AND IX THE BAYS 



OF THE BALTIC. 



In order to carry on the coast-fisliery in the proper manner, the first 

 thing required is an exact knowledge of the mode of life of those fish 

 which are to be caught ; and, secondly, an intimate acquaintance with 

 all the fishing-implements employed at different seasons of the year. 

 To do full justice to the subject would require more space than can be 

 allowed in a short introduction ; we shall, therefore, only give the most 

 important points which should be known and observed by a successful 

 fisherman. 



Kinds of Jisli caught hy the coast-fishermen. — The principal fish found 

 on the Swedish coast of the Baltic and in its bays and sounds are, the 

 perch, carp, crucian, tench, roach, chub, Cyprinus vimha, bream, pike, 

 salmon, trout, gwiniad, Salmo albula, burbot, and eel. As useful either 

 for bait or as food for larger fish we must mention the ruff, the stickle- 

 back, the minnow, the bleak, and the smelt. 



Mode of life of the above-mentioned fish. — All the above-mentioned fish 

 have this in common, that at certain seasons of the year they visit cer- 

 tain places on the coast and the coast- waters, and that every year during 

 the spawning season they go to such places as seem specially suited for 

 propagating. Although all of them may in a certain respect be more or 

 less called migratory fish, it has been observed that each one of them in 

 those waters in which it lives confines its migrations to certain limits, that, 

 for instance, the perch and the bream, «S:c., each onlj^ visit their certain 

 bay (and this a bay near to the deep water), and that they scarcely ever 

 extend their migrations beyond this, the limits of their wandering and 

 spawning, unless the spawning-places are disturbed or other natural 

 causes lead to a change. This characteristic trait of the fish, to confine 

 its migration to certain limits, and each kind and school to select that 

 spawning-place where it was born, is especially striking with the migra- 

 tory fish properly so called, the salmon, carp, gwiniad, and others, which 

 generally go u^) certain rivers and streams for the purj^ose of spawning. 

 By marking young salmon which were on the point of leaving the river 

 where they were born, it has been proved that these fish, which of all our 

 fish wander away farthest from their regular place of sojourn, nevertheless 

 return to it regularly. It has moreover been proved that if a whole 

 school of fish, for example, gwiniad, «S:c., having its spawning-place in a 

 small stream, is caught, no fish of this kind will ever return to this stream, 

 although the nature of the water has remained the same, and although 

 they will continue to go in streams close by, where the fishing has not 

 been of so destructive a character. On the other hand it has been found 

 that fish have left such streams which, by draining, cultivation, or other 

 agencies, had their natural character changed so as no longer to offer a- 



