COUNCIL — SEPT. 1912 — APPENDIX!) — 88 — 



of the herring trawl was possibly smaller than was necessary for the capture of 

 herrings. In case the Swedish investigators desired, he would with pleasure place 

 at their disposal the whole of that part of the material which dealt with the 

 destruction of the young of food fishes by the herring trawl. 



Dr. Redeke asked Dr. Hjort if he had succeeded in catching herrings with 

 the trawl employed on the "Michael Sars". 



Dr. Hjort stated that herrings had often been caught with the trawl, especi- 

 ally of the 0-Group wich had been distributed over great parts of the North Sea. 

 Herrings of the I-Group were found in several places. An important point in 

 connection with the investigations was in particular to obtain information as to 

 Group O and Group I. 



Mr. BoRLEY said that the action taken by the English investigators in regard 

 to the resolution was of a preliminary character, intended chiefly to furnish guidance 

 for future work; and the observations being still in progress no definite results 

 could be communicated at present. It might, however, be desirable to state what 

 steps had been taken. 



For the study of the small fish taken in the commercial herring trawl a 

 member of the scientific staff, Mr. Davis, had been placed on a Hull steam herring 

 trawler, by the kind permission of the owners; he commenced this work some 

 weeks previously, and was still at sea, the data which he was collecting furnishing 

 valuable informations as to the entire content of the herring trawl when in actual 

 commercial use. In addition to this the English research steamer was carrying out 

 systematic observations which were designed to furnish information as to the 

 distribution of herring; and as the trawl used in this work was of a similar pattern 

 and mesh to the commercial herring trawl, although a smaller net, the results 

 obtained would supplement those obtained by Mr. Davis. 



Dr. Redeke enquired what percentage of the total catch of herrings in Eng- 

 land were taken with the trawl. 



Dr. Masterman : As far as I remember, 8 — 9 "/o of the total Enghsh catch 

 in the North Sea are taken by trawl. On the West-coast — from Milford — there 

 are many more per cent of trawl caught herring than on the East coast. 



Dr. Hugh Smith had in Grimsby got the information that about 60 steamers 

 from that town were now engaged in the herring trawl fishery. 



Dr. Trybom thanked Dr. Hjort for his offer to place at the disposal of the 

 Swedish investigators the material collected by him bearing on the destruction of 

 young fish by the herring trawl, which he would be very pleased to accept. In- 



