A STUDY OX TROUT AND YOUNG SALMON. 315 



seines, will onlv result in the present half-lawful, half-lawless 

 state of the fishery. 



The fishermen cannot be forbidden the use of fine meshed 

 seines in fishing for herrings and other fish, and in employing 

 these seines they will take what trout they get. law or no law. 

 as long as they can sell or eat it. These are the present con- 

 ditions, and a law, which is not kept, has no chance of being 

 kept and clashes with the demands of the very industry, for 

 whose benefit it is instituted, is worse than no law. 



As regards the rivers, river-mouths and their immediate 

 surroundings the question of a reduction or abolition of the 

 mesh regulations will be essentially different. A total abolition 

 of the mesh regulation would in the above-mentioned locahties 

 imply drawbacks, not to be disregarded. 



Clearly rivers, river-mouths and their immediate surroundings 

 offer a far better opportunitv than the sea, of capturing with 

 smallmeshed seines large numbers of young trout, about the 

 regulation size, which I have deemed it advisable to adopt as 

 a limit for trout to be sold. It will be remembered that my 

 suggestion as to the size limit of 15 cm. was given more from 

 considerations the interests of freshwatertrout than to those of 

 seatrout. and mainly in order to secure uniform regulations, 

 which could not be evaded. My intention is that capture of the 

 smaller sizes in the rivers should mainly be carried out with 

 hook gear as used by sportsmen or by people fishing to obtain 

 food. Thus it would never attain dimensions worth considering. 

 However, there is no doubt, that an unhmited license to employ 

 seine gear of anv mesh in rivers and river-mouths would lead 

 to abuse, because the opportunity of capturing very small fish 

 is here so ample. There is consequently no doubt, that such 

 a relaxation of earlier regulations is totallv wrong and inad- 

 visable. 



A mesh, which would prevent abuse and retain marketable 

 trout misht of course easilv be determined if. in the rivers, the 



