A STUDY ON TROUT AND YOUNG SALMON. 311 



d. The mesh. 



The main object of our investigations must now be to 

 determine the degree in which our present regulations as to a 

 minimum size of mesh may be modified in the interests of 

 trout fishing. It is here of importance sharply to distinguish 

 on the one hand, what the interests of salmon fisheries demand 

 in order not to be injured, and on the other hand, what may be 

 offered the trout fisheries without inconveniencing the salmon 

 fisheries. 



I have previously shewn that salmon of sizes between 

 (13 — 16) and (45 — 50) cm. practically speaking do not occur in 

 our waters. Further I have also mentioned that 45-^50 cm. 

 forms the lower limit of the sizes of salmon caught at the present 

 time in gear with a mesh in accordance with the law. When 

 we further remember that I previously have advised the lower- 

 ing of the size limit, for protection of the young trout and salmon, 

 to 15 cm., the sum of these facts would seem to admit of the 

 conclusion, that any regulation of the mesh would be in general 

 unnecessary as well for salmon as for trout. 



Provided the authorities were able to organise the administ- 

 ration of our salmon and trout fisheries in a wholly rational 

 and ideal way, — a question to which I shall later on return, — 

 I should principally impress on them the correctness of the above 

 conclusion. 



However I am quite convinced that at the present time 

 regulations relating to the mesh of net gear cannot wholly be 

 discarded by legislation relating to these fisheries, considering 

 the development of the latter during the last 2 or 3 decades. 



If the authorities are not prepared to foster the development 

 of these fisheries on new lines, this question need not, at the 

 present time, be discussed in general, but the importance of 

 mesh regulations must be conscientiously considered for each 

 of the present fishing methods. Thus our deliberations must 



