— 121 — 
A movement of small fish in the opposite direction, from the eastern waters to the 
Finmark coast, must, however, have taken place during the summer of 1915. This will 
be clearly seen from Fig. 77. I have here drawn four curves, indicating: 
1) Size of the Finmark fish in May, with about 85 % skrei. 
2) Size of the fish in one of the trawl catches (St. 24) on the Murman coast in May. 
3) and 4) Sizes of the Finmark fish later on in June. 
On comparing these curves, we find that the composition of the Finmark fish in 
June exhibits distinctly different percentages from those for the beginning of May, a 
greater number of small fish being present. The curve is also more elongated in form; 
there are no specially predominant single groups, as in May. This is, in my opinion, 
partly due to an emigration of skrei moving eastward, and partly to an immigration 
of loddefisk moving west. Later on in June, the fishery decreased in intensity, there 
being fewer fish on the grounds, which may to some extent account for the fact that 
the less numerously represented groups, both of large and small fish, now begin to play 
a more important part in the composition of the whole. That an immigration had taken 
place, was however, apparent to anyone having occasion to observe the fish by thous- 
ands at this time. The change made itself apparent suddenly, out in deep water (150 
fathoms) where, as the fishermen said, a new shoal had arrived. These fish were, however, 
far from equal to those previously present. One might naturally have expected to en- 
counter, among these new arrivals, a composition in size similar to that evident in the 
trawling catches on the Murman coast m May. A slight indication of this is also shown 
by curve 4, (Fig. 77); this group could not, however, play so important a part among 
the Finmark fish as in the trawl catches, the method of capture alone would render 
this impossible. The trawl would doubtless take most of the fish between 40—50 cm.; 
cod of 40 cm. however, are, as we have seen, of no great importance in the line fishery 
of Finmarken. 
In the Barents Sea, the water layers and the fish shift east and west. It is probable 
that in 1913 a distinct eastward movement took place earlier in the year than is usually 
the case; at the beginning of May also, the temperature of the upper two hundred metres, 
as far east as Vardo, was very high, about 4°. 
In order to obtain better idea as to the movements of the cod from one shoal to 
another, we must now proceed to consider the age and growth of the fish. 
CEA RAIN 
The stock of Cod; its composition with regard to age. 
Age and growth of the cod. 
The earliest attempts at determining the age of cod were based upon numerous 
measurements, grouped according to size (C. G. Jou. PETERSEN). The results obtained 
by this method were, as in the case of the herring, satisfactory as far as the younger 
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