MERTINfi MAY — 1918 — 18 — 



Fourth Sitting. 

 Saturday 25th May 1918, 2.10 p.m. 



Chairman : President Professor Pettersson. 



Present: Drechsel, Ekman, van Everdingen, Gran, Hjort, Johansen, Knupsen, 



NoRDQuisT, Ostenfeld, Redeke, Schmidt. 



Secretary: Dr. Gehrke. 



Commander Drechsel read the draft of the following letter dealing with 

 the necessity of resuming, immediately after the war, international scientific in- 

 vestigations in the North Sea and adjacent waters: 



To the Delegates 

 of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea. 



»On the necessity of resuming, immediately after the war, international scien- 

 tific investigations in the North Sea and adjacent waters, with research steamers, 

 and by statistical investigation of catches landed in the harbours. 



1. Before the present war, it w-as generally agreed upon by the scientific fishery 

 experts of the countries participating in the international investigations, that the 

 intense fishery in the North Sea had rather seriously affected the stock of several 

 species of food fish in the North Sea and adjacent waters such as the Skagerak 

 and Kattegat. Indications of such so-called "overfishing" had occurred, as for 

 instance evidences of an unnaturally increased preponderance of young and small 

 fishes over the older and larger ones, and the absolute scarcity of decidedly large 

 and old individuals. 



This view was — as far as regards plaice — unanimously agreed upon at a 

 meeting of the International Council 26th — 27th of June 1912 by the so-called 

 Plaice Committee, and later by the Council itself at a meeting in Copenhagen 16th 

 — 20th September 1913. One of the conclusions then adopted (see Procès-Verbaux 

 XIX, p. 54) is to the effect that "there has been for many years a decrease in the 

 larger sizes of plaice in the North Sea. The number of plaice of the smaller sizes 

 in the landings has increased. It would be desirable in the interests of the fisher- 

 men and of the public generally that these smaller sizes of plaice should be pre- 

 served on the grounds until they have grown to a larger and more valuable size". 



With reference to these and other conclusions, the Council resolved to lay 

 before the various Governments definite proposals regarding minimum size for 

 plaice under which the landing should be forbidden (see Procès-Verbaux XIX, 

 p. 58). 



