WIDEGREN MANAGEMENT OF THE BALTIC FISHERY. 137 



as it is consumed the fish requires other food, and seeks places where 

 suitable food cau be obtained, aud where it can find protection against 

 the attacks of the numerous flsh-of-prey which eagerly devour the' 

 young fish. Such places are the algae-covered bottoms near the shore, 

 where small crustaceans, scarcely discernible to the naked eye, are 

 found in profusion and form the first food of the young fish. As the 

 young codfish grows, becomes stronger and larger, and is able to defend 

 itself against its enemies, viz, tish-of-prey of every kind, not the least 

 dangerous among them being the old codfish themselves, it goes into 

 deeper waters, where it finds larger crustaceans, worms, and snails, which 

 at a more mature age form its favorite food. When fully grown the 

 codfish is a voracious fish -of -prey, devouring almost everything coming 

 in its way, young fish and fish of every kind. It therefore prefers the 

 deep waters, wliere it feeds on the large schools of herrings, and often 

 visits the banks where the herring spawns, and devours its spawn and 

 young. Since the roe of the codfish does not adhere to i)lants or stones, 

 but floats about freely near the surface of the water, it depends on cur- 

 rent, weather, and wind to what coast it will float, and a large portion 

 of it is consequently very often cast ashore and lost. And as it is well 

 known that the codfish, like other fish, when fully grown, revisits the 

 coast where it was born, it is imj^ossible to calculate on seeing again, as 

 full-grown fish, the young codfish which were born on a certain coast. 

 For the roe laid near some coast may, by current and wind, be carried 

 to distant i^arts, and the home of the young fish will be the coast to 

 which the roe has been carried accidentally ; and this coast will be revis- 

 ited by them when they are fully grown, when, after having closed their 

 annual regular visits to the deeper waters, the time comes for them to 

 seek shallow waters. 



Nature has thus arranged it so that even with the greatest care and 

 protection it is imj)ossible to calculate with absolute certainty on a suc- 

 cessful cod fishery on any given coast. Experience has shown that on 

 certain coasts no codfish have come to spawn for several years, although 

 fishing had by no means been carried on in a destructive manner, and 

 although the natural conditions continued as favorable as during the 

 time when the codfish annually visited those coasts in large numbers. 

 It is supposed, and probably correctly, that the cause why enormous 

 cod-fisheries have for many years been carried on uninterruptedly in 

 some localities, e. g.. the Loftbden, the Norwegian coast, the Shetland 

 Islands, Iceland, &c., must be found in the fact that these coasts or 

 groups of islands are so favorably situated near or in deep waters, that 

 even when current and wind are comparatively speaking less favorable, 

 a sufficient quantity of roe and young fish is carried into the bays 

 and sounds to insure good fisheries. It must also be remembered that 

 the cod-fisheries carried on in the Loffoden and other large fishing 

 places on the Atlantic Ocean, although carried on near the coast, have 



