APPENDIX E: HEINCKB _ 10 — 



border, and this border weighted tends to go downwards in fishing. Each board is connected 

 by 4 chains to a bridle of 12 mm. wire- warp ; the three bridles are each 90 m. long and 

 are shackled on to the large steel warp of the Poseidon. The manipulation of the net is 

 done in the following manner. The warp with the 3 bridles runs from the winch over a 

 large block fastened to a boom on the foremast, and on running out lets the 3 boards, 

 lying loosely together with the attached net, go overboard into the water. When the 3 

 boards and the bridles are some distance out in the water and the ship is set in motion, 

 the 3 boards spread out from one another in 3 directions, in consequence of their structure 

 and the peculiar manner of fastening the chains to the bridles. The net thus opens of 

 itself and remains open so long as it is pulled through the water. The width or stretch 

 of the net depends upon the speed of the ship, the depth in which it fishes and the 

 length of warp out. If the net is quite open, it has a triangular opening of about 100 

 square meters, if only Va open — which is more frequently the case — it has always still 

 50 square meters as the area of the opening. 



The advantages of this net, which has proved an excellent net, are various. Firstly, 

 the easy and convenient manipulation from the steamer, where a steam-winch, 

 strong, steel warps and a boom are disposable for shooting the net. Then the possibility 

 of towing relatively fast — we fish ordinarily with a speed of 3 to 5 nautical miles per 

 hour and mostly for an hour. Thirdly, the size of the net, which, along with the speed, 

 allows, not only the pursuit of the young fish through large stretches of water and the 

 catching of many, but also the capture of larger fish. For example, we have taken herring 

 up to 24 cm. in length with it (in January 1904, we caught in an hour's haul in the 

 mouth of the Elbe, ca. 5400 herring and sprat of 7 to 16 cm. in length), also whiting 

 up to 26 cm. in length, and plaice and flounder of similar size. On the other hand, the 

 net also catches small, even the smallest young fish and larger larvae of 1 cm., also 

 smaller, in quantities. Fourthly, the possibility of fishing in all layers of water, 

 even just above the ground. Thus, in the Skager Rak we once let out a .length of 350 

 meters warp , and the net was for some time on the ground. It brought up various 

 whiting and haddock up to 35 cm. in length, and smaller ground-dwelling animals such 

 as sea-urchins, polyzoa etc. In July 1904, we made two parallel experiments with Hjort's 

 ring-net and the 3-otter-boards net, at the same spot on the slope of the western Skager 

 Eak, over 109 m. in depth; both times the hauls were made at slow speed, for one hour 

 close to the surface. Hjort's net brought in 130, the 3-otter-boards net about. 1000 young 

 fish of 2-5 to 11 cm. in length, the larger of which were only in the latter net. On 

 hauling in the 3-otter-boards net, it was observed that many, obviously hundreds of fishes, 

 probably young, escaped through the meshes and were lost. 



A fault of the net is that it lets many young fish escape, as mentioned above, as 

 the meshes are only small enough in the hinder part of the net. If we make the meshes 

 smaller in front, the permissible speed and the power of resistance of the net are distinctly 

 lowered. Perhaps it is advisable to construct a smaller, similar net in addition to our 

 large one, which would have smaller meshes of about 3 to 4 cm. at the opening. 



3. The fishing for small and the smallest bottom-stages of the young 

 fishes. 



After we had, at the beginning of our investigations, used the so-called Petersen trawl 

 suggested by C. G. J oh. Petersen, we constructed in consequence, a specially small net 



