— fy 
showed between 200 and 400 eggs per haul. In the latter part of April, the catches near 
the edge from Hast Lofoten amounted to over 500. 
In April, eggs were found on the eastern Lofoten bank to the number of 4—500 
per square metre surface, while farther to the west, the occurrence was in places very 
considerable, thus off Lofotodden, 1,500 eggs. The greatest catches were made at Rost, 
where at one place, on the 11th April, 4,630 eggs per sq. m. surface were found. 
It will be noticed that the occurrence is here extremely irregular. On the 26th 
April, 4,005 eggs per sq.m. were taken at a single haul at one station south-south-west 
of Rast, while some few miles away only 8 eggs were found. This would certainly appear 
to confirm the theory as to the existence of certain limited spawning grounds, which 
theory was moreover, still further supported by observation of the fishery. On the occa- 
sion of the investigations at Rost on the 11th April, the number of implements set out 
in the sea immediately adjacent was so great that it appeared impossible to make a verti- 
cal haul on the fishing ground itself. In order to avoid damaging the fishermen’s gear, 
we were obliged to make our vertical haul at a distance of a mile from the small area 
where the mass of fishermen were at work. The results of these investigations there- 
fore confirm, in a very high degree, the conclusion previously arrived at, viz., that the 
shoals of cod and their newly spawned eggs are, during and immediatly after spawning 
time, restricted to small areas. These areas lie, as we have seen, exclusively inside the 
banks, that is, between the land and the 100 fathom limit. Of all the hauls made in 
deeper water, out in the middle of Vestfjorden, only one can show any large number 
of eggs, viz, that of the 2nd April, (Fig. 52) where they amounted to 965 per sq. m. of 
surface. This occurrence in such numbers here I can only explain as due to the eggs 
having been carried out from the bank by the current. 
Another distinct example of eggs drifting with the current may also be men- 
tioned (Fig. 53). On the 11th of April, the number of eggs per sq. m. taken near Rost 
was 4,630, whereas on the 26th of April, at the same place, it was only 341. The fishery had 
in the meantime shifted some miles in a south-westerly direction, to where the figure 
shows 4,005 eggs, and it must be supposed that the great quantity of eggs had during 
this period become distributed over a larger area. On both days, however, (the 11th 
and 26th April) the eggs were found in great quantities exactly at those spots where 
the most intense fishery was in progress. Indeed, as regards the Lofoten fishery as a 
whole, it may be said that the greater quantity of eggs found in the western part of 
the fiord as compared with the occurrence in the eastern waters coincides with the 
fact that the fishery during this year was richer in the former than in the latter. 
International investigations as to the spawning places of the cod. 
The results of the first investigations (in 1901) as to the restricted occurrence of 
the cod eggs naturally led to the conclusion that the eggs might serve as a basis for de- 
termining the position of the spawning shoals. I therefore, in the year immediately fol- 
lowing, suggested to the International Council that endeavours should be made to chart, 
upon a co-operative basis, the whole spawning area in northern European waters, the 
method of proceeding being to note the spot in which newly spawned cod eggs were 
found. This proposal, which was supported in particular by Heryexe and Hoek, led 
to the undertaking of very extensive investigations, in which the Danish, Dutch, Ger- 
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