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and the market measurements give no reason to suppose that either relatively or abso- 

 lutely more young undersized plaice are destroyed in the eastern, German parts of the 

 southern North Sea, i. e., Areas A3 and B4, than in the western parts off the coasts 

 of Belgium and the Netherlands, in Areas As and Ba. 



Landings of Plaice in Denmark. 



The Danish plaice fishery, the average total yield of which amounts to about 10 

 million kilogrammes, has its principal fishing grounds, not in the North Sea, but in the 

 Skagerrak, Kattegat, Belt Sea and the Baltic, which alone yield about 6.5 million kg., 

 leaving only about 3.5 million kg. to the true North Sea, which is approximately the 

 amount of the German plaice fishery in the North Sea. 



The chief port for the Danish plaice fishery in the North Sea is Esbjerg, on the 

 west coast of Jutland. The fishing vessels sailing from this port are, with the exception 

 of some very few steamers and a number of small shore fishing vessels, chiefly decked cutters, 

 which work the areas A3, B4, A4, B5 and Ca, fishing all the year round with the 

 exception of January and February, mostly in early summer and autumn. These cutters 

 are fitted for storage of live fish, and bring their catches to market alive. They 

 invariably use the "Snurrevaad", which has been generally adopted on the west coast 

 of Jutland since 1892. Although the fact that the Danish plaice fishery differs essentially 

 from that of other lands is in part due to the character of the nets used, this is still 

 more owing to the fact that a legal size-limit of 25.6 cm. for plaice has existed for a 

 number of years, and is strictly enforced. The composition of the landings is naturally 

 considerably influenced by this, as regards its lower limits, and is thus very different 

 from that of the landings in England, Germany, Belgium, and especially in Holland. 

 And finally, the plaice landed in Denmark are sorted in quite a different way to that 

 of most of the other countries. The hve plaice landed are reckoned by the score, and 

 the total weight of the landing is calculated only from the weight of each score. Diffe- 

 rent sorts are mostly classed only according to the weight per score. 



Extensive market measurements of live plaice landed in Esbjerg from the North 

 Sea have been carried out for the years 1904, 1905 and 1906. During these three 

 years 23,902 fish caught with the "Snurrevaad" and of 22 to 45 cm. in length, were 

 measured. In spite of the relatively very small number of these measurements — 

 amounting annually to only 0.03 or 0.08 "/o of the total catch — they are nevertheless in 

 all probability to be regarded as having good representative value. On the basis of 

 these measurements we get the following probable composition of the total landings in 

 Esbjerg for the three years 1904/06. 



The picture given by this composition of the Danish landings of plaice is totally 

 different from that of the landings in other countries. No immediate comparison with 

 these is here possible; they can only be compared as far as concerns those portions of 

 the different landings which lie above the value of greatest density, and are thus un- 

 affected by the selection owing to size-limit, etc. This value of greatest density, or 

 boundary value between curves of selection and the curves of the true catch is repre- 

 sented in the Danish landings by the length of 26 cm. We see from such comparison, 

 that the Danish landings from the North Sea are very similar to the German, (steamers 



•;i 



