Nr. 9] CONTRIB. TO THE LIFE HISTORY OF THE FISHES 13 



Cod kept in the aquarium have during the last four or five 

 years spawned chiefly in March and April, the spawning time 

 extending, however, until near the lOth of May. This spawning 

 time also agrees with the general spawning season of the cod 

 in the fjord; which, according to Swenander, falls »during the 

 months of March, April and May.« As in the case of the plaice, 

 the spawning takes place for the most part at night. 



The most important cod fishery in the fjord is that carried 

 on in Verrafjord during the spawning season. As a matter of 

 fact, howewer, cod fishing is carried on more or less throughout 

 the whole extent of the fjord, right up to Stenkjær. There was 

 a rich cod fishery in Stjørdalsfjord, for instance in January and 

 February 1914. The fish, which were large and fat, were tåken 

 in nets, in quite shallow water. At the same time, a conside 

 rable net fishery was being carried on i Gulosen, likewise for 

 cod. Drift nets, orignally intended for salmon, were used with 

 great success, being here employed as stake nets. The fish were 



L 



■?m^ 



Fig. 3. Deformed cod from Stjørdalsfjord, 15 /i 1915. 



moving among the small herring, so the fishermen said. During 

 November 1914 and later during the winter, there w T as good cod 

 fishery in Stjørdalsfjord, though the fish were at first thin and 

 poor. In the course of this fishery, a number of deformed 

 specimens were tåken, similar in appearance to that shown in 

 fig. 3. The individual here shown was presented to me by 

 Mr. Joh. Foss, of Sfjørdalen. The fish was 40 cm. long, 

 distance from point of snout to posterior margin of gill cover 

 12 cm. 



In May 1915 there was a rich cod fishery between Inderøya 

 and Ytterøya. Some of the boats took from 80 — 90 kg. of fat 

 cod in the space of three or four hours. The fish were tåken 

 on the snatch hook (pilk). There were at the same time, 

 according to the fishermen, num bers of herring in the fjord. 



It has been found, that beside the coalfish, (»storsei«) there 

 are also cod on the coral banks in summer. During the summer 

 of 1909, Johan Arnt Kvernvik set out cod lines in Skarnsund 

 abt. 6 fathoms from bottom, and caught a quantity of large cod. 



