WIDEGREN MANAGEME>JT OF THE BALTIC FISHERY. 125 



variety owing to the siuTOunding nature. Thus, for example, a larger 

 kind of herrings is at certain seasons of the year found in some bays of 

 the Baltic and can easily be distinguished from those herrings which live 

 and spawn on the outer coast ; and the herring found on the coast of Bo- 

 husliin and in the Christiania fiord differ in size, &c., from the herring found 

 on the western coast of Norway. These differences have not only given 

 rise to different ways of preparing the herring and to different names 

 under which the herring comes in the market, but from them certain 

 conclusions may be draw^n regarding the mode of life of the herring, 

 from which, again, important lessons may be derived regarding the pro- 

 tection and the improvement of the herring-fisheries. Even at this day 

 there are many fishermen who entertain the opinion, which before science 

 had spread more light was quite common, that the herring only acci- 

 dentally came from remote portions of the ocean to those coasts where 

 it is caught, and therefore these fishermen thought to do right by using' 

 these accidents and catching as many herrings as possible; in other 

 words, to fish with the most destructive implements, even those by which 

 a whole race of fish would be destroj^ed. But since experience has 

 shown that Norwegian herring are never caught on the coast of Bohus- 

 liin, nor Kulla herring on the coast of Bleking, nor Gottland herring on 

 the eastern coast, &c., and since the time and place have been discovered 

 where the herring spaAATis ; as well as the mode of life of the tender fry, 

 its place of sojourn, &c., it has been ascertained that the herring — like 

 the salmon and other fish — has certain limits to its migrations, certain 

 places where it spawns, «&c. If good herring-fi.sheries are to continue 

 on certain coasts they must be carried on in such a manner as not to 

 catch all the fish which come to a certain place either to spawn or to 

 live. Care should also be taken to spare the young fry, because if this 

 is not done the race of fish on the coast in question may be destroyed, 

 since no new race can be expected to come here, and thus a large source 

 of income will be lost, whilst if the young fish are spared good fishing 

 may be exj)ected every year. 



In several places on the Baltic and the Western Sea carelessness with 

 regard to the preservation of the race of herrings and the protection of 

 the young fish has been severely punished. The investigations which 

 have been made for several years, have shown conclusively that careless 

 and destructive fishing has contributed not a little to the cessation of 

 the great Bohuslan herring-fisheries, wiiich unfortunately have not yet 

 recovered, chiefly because as soon as a school of young herrings shows 

 itself on that coast it is immediately caught with nets that have small 

 meshes. Near Bresund, in Norway, the herrings used to come to the 

 coast for many years, but ceased to come when people began to use nets 

 with small meshes. To give instances from nearer home we will men- 

 tion that not so long ago herrings came to the coast near Brfiviken and 

 to the mouth of the Motala Eiver, as well as near Losingsskar and 

 Botilshiist, where large quantities were often caught. But people com- 



