[25] THE GREAT BOHUS-LAN HERRING FISHERIES. 123 
of these latter are very small as compared with those of the drag-net 
fishers, leaving out of the question the fact that they will have to com- 
bat much greater difficulties and dangers.“ As, moreover, the open sea 
is free to all, drag-net fisheries, if once introduced in the Kattegat, would 
soon be carried on also by the fishermen of other nationalities, who, in most 
cases, could do this under more favorable circumstances than we. Den- 
mark is much more favorably located in this respect than Bohus-lan, and 
those nations whose herring already enjoy a high reputation in the 
great markets of the world, and who have the most experienced and 
skilled fishermen, will certainly, if drag-net fisheries are introduced in 
the Skagerack, soon outstrip us in the race. They will suffer much less 
than our own drag-net fishermen from competition with the herring 
caught near the coast, which, as far as our Bohus-lin fisheries are con- 
cerned, will (during a herring period) naturally determine the yeputa- 
tion of the herring.’ The Bohus-lin herring, no matter whether they 
are caught with nets or seines, will most assuredly only gain the repu- 
tation of a second-rate article; for if the fisheries on our coast yield an 
exceptionally large number of herring, people will not be careful in pre- 
paring them; and with coast-fisheries like ours the exportation of badly 
salted and prepared herring would hardly occur in any large quantities 
or for any length of time,!® as our herring would very soon lose their 
reputation, all the more as the other nations who participated in these 
fisheries with us would doubtless find it to their advantage to decry 
our goods. 
The meeting in the Skagerack of numerous fishermen of different 
nationalities would also in many other respects cause unpleasantness, 
and if during stormy weather many of the foreign fishermen should be 
compelled to seek shelter in the harbors on our coast it would often be 
extremely difficult to maintain good order. 
Drag-net fisheries would also have this disadvantage for Sweden that 
they would draw a large number of persons from other and far more 
important trades, which would thereby suffer. During the most produc- 
tive periods of our last great herring fisheries of the eighteenth century 
about 6,000 seine fishers caught a much larger number of herring per 
annum than more than 45,000 catch in Scotland at the present time. 
The outfit of the seine fishers is moreover much less expensive. As 
regards the supposed injurious character of the different apparatus, just 
as great, if not greater, objections could be raised against the drag-nets 
as against the large seines. 
The supposed advantages of drag-net fisheries over seine fisheries—viz, 
4See A. V. LJuNGMAN: Silljfiskefrdgan in the Gottenburg Handels-och Sjéfarts-Tid- 
ning, 1879, No. 10. 
%The experience gained during the winter herring-fisheries on the west coast of 
Norway goes to confirm this. 
16See O. N. LésBeRG: Norges Fiskerier, Christiania, 1864, pp. 51-52, 54-55, 63, 65; 
A. V. LaunGMaN: “ Sillfiskefrdgan in the Gottenburg Handels-och Sjéfarts-Tidning,” 
1879, Nos. 10 and 11, January 14 and 15. 
