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their landings of undersized fish to much better effect than the steamers; they earn 

 from these about 250,000 Mark annually, as against abt. 60,000 Mark for the steamers 

 A size-limit prohibiting the landing, and thus the utilisation of small undersized fish 

 would therefore naturally prejudice the takings of the sailing vessels far more than of 

 the steamers. If fixed, for instance, at 25 cm. it would cost the saihng vessels the half 

 of their earnings from plaice fishing, the steamers one sixth at the outside. This would 

 moreover, be in the case of the former a still greater loss, since the plaice is for them 

 the most important item of their fishery, and represents, both in weight and value, the 

 greatest part of their annual yield, while in the case of the great majority of steamers 

 this fish plays only an unimportant part, and ranks in point of yield far below the 

 sum of their other trawling fishery. 



Our knowledge as to the composition of the German landings of plaice from the 

 North Sea, as obtained from the market measurements for the single year 1909, leaves 

 still the question open, as to whether this composition has remained the same for a long 

 period of years, or whether it perhaps differed essentially in any other earlier year. As 

 far back as the years 1904 and 1905 market measurements and weighings were carried 

 out at German ports, although these were not nearly so extensive, nor so methodically 

 correct, as those of the year 1909. These measurements for 1904/05 show a larger 

 average of weight of the plaice in the German landings than in 1909 and thus naturally 

 also a considerably different composition of the same, the percentage of .young, under- 

 sized plaice in 1909 being higher than that of 1904/05. If these investigations are 

 entirely reliable — which is not yet quite certain, — it is still open to doubt whether 

 such differences in the composition of the plaice landings are merely the result of vari- 

 ations in the localisation of the fishery — which might for instance one year be carried 

 on nearer the coast, and in another at greater distance therefrom, etc. — or whether it 

 is really a question of actual alteration in the stock of fish, so that, for instance the 

 year 1909 shows depreciation of the fish stock, as against 1904/05, resulting from a 

 relative increase in the number of smaller plaice and diminution of the proportion of 

 larger fish. 



Landings of plaice in Holland. 



The Dutch plaice landings from the North Sea are of some importance; amounting 

 to about 7.5 million kg. annually, i. e. about one-fourth of the English landings, and 

 more than that proportion of the landings of other countries bordering on the North 

 Sea. The value of these Dutch landings can be estimated at about 720,000 Gulden, 

 and amounts to about 20 or 25 "/o of the total value of the Dutch trawl fishery in the 

 North Sea. 



The Dutch plaice fishery is, like the German, divided between steamers using the 

 otter trawl, and sailing vessels, which fish with the beam trawl. The steamers fish for 

 the most part farther out at sea, in Areas A2, Bs, B4, Bi and Cs, chiefly however 

 in Areas Bs and Bi (Dogger Bank). The port used by most of the steamers is 

 Ymuiden. The sailing ships are divided into two classes; large vessels, similar to the 

 English smacks, sailing chiefly from Scheveningen and Katwijk an Zee, and working the 

 grounds that lie farther out at sea, and a number of small shore fishing vessels, which 



