[13] THE HERRING FISHERIES OF SWEDEN. 741 



Goverument to order a scientific investigation with the view to get re- 

 liable information as to the actual state of aifairs. This investigation was 

 entrusted to Professor i^ilsson, who visited the coast of Bohuslan dur- 

 ing the summers of 1826, 1827, 1832, and 1833. In his reports Professor 

 !Xilsson gave in their main outlines the views given above as to the 

 causes of the herring fisheries coming to an end, and thoroughly refuted 

 (as to some extent M. E. Bloch had done before him) the hypothesis ad- 

 vanced by Dr. J. Anderson, of Hamburg, Germaiiy, that the herring 

 liad their home near the ISTorth Pole, and migrated thence; but in his 

 zeal he went too far in the other direction, by considering the herring 

 as a fish wliich is confined to the place of its birth and its nearest sur- 

 roundings. He further thought that by outward differences of race the 

 herring showed from what part of the sea the^" came ; and, therefore, as 

 " two different races of the same kind " could not be supposed to " live 

 in the same waters, and under entirely the same conditions," the so 

 called "old" herring, or "sea herring proper," the somewhat smaller 

 coast herring which spawns in spring, or the so called " spring herring," 

 and the medium-sized herring which is caught in large quantities dur- 

 ing winter, must all be of one and the same kind, belonging to the Skage- 

 rack, and thereupon he based his well-known opinion, that by good man- 

 agement, and by taking j)roper care of the flshei'ies, new, great herring 

 fisheries could be produced. Professor IsTilsson thought that all that 

 was necessary to reach this end was to abolish the use of seines, and, 

 as is done on the coast of Holland, to use only stationary nets. Most 

 scientists at the time agreed with these views of Professor Nilsson. 



The coast population, however, as well as the authorities of Bohuslan, 

 very emphatically opposed these views of the scientists. Thus it was 

 constantly said that the "old" sea-herring were of a different kind 

 from those herring caught later in small quantities, and that even if 

 the use of seines was prohibited, with the view to spare the small her- 

 ring, the catches of full-grown herring would not be any larger. Spec- 

 ial care was taken to prove that the line-fisheries would suffer if the 

 seines were abolished, because there would be a lack of bait. 



These two objections were, of course, met, and, according to the de- 

 mands of the time, apparently answered by the scientists, who also 

 made several suggestions as to the best way of meeting the demand for 

 bait. 



After about twenty years had passed, during which this controversy 

 was going on, the Swedish Parliament, on the 25th August, 1844, on 

 the motion of Mr. Hjort, a member from Bohuslan, passed a resolution 

 that the Government should be requested to put the views of the 

 scientists to some practical use ; which resolution, also favored by the 

 Eoyal Academy of Sciences, led to the new fishery law of June 29, 

 1852. The provisions of this relative to the care of the herring fisheries 

 were, however, not at all carried out, at least on those coasts where 



