A STUDY ON TROUT AND YOUNG SALMON. 321 



the law of 1863, viz.: the protection of the young or non- 

 marketahle fish. 



As mentioned before, some of the grilse caught in the upper 

 reaches of rivers are marked by passing through the meshes of 

 net gear. I expressed as my own opinion that this must be 

 caused principally, by seine fishing in the narrow rivers. But even 

 supposing, that part of these marked grilse are fish which have 

 passed through bag nets in the sea, the importance of this fact 

 would, in my opinion, be small compared to the prospects 

 offered to our other sea-fisheries by the employment of fine 

 meshed bag nets. 



It will be remembered as my investigations have shown 

 that salmon of sizes between 16 and 45 cm. cannot be caught 

 in our waters. If this result is compared with the tables 

 published by Mr. Landmark in his report for 1891 — 1894, 

 showing the size of grilse caught by the present mesh, it is 

 evident that at all events only a very small portion of the grilse 

 group would have any chance of penetrating the present mesh 

 of the bag nets and would consequently be retained by a smaller 

 mesh. 



Consequently it is evident that mesh regulations, as a means 

 of protecting young non-marketable salmon, are a failure. 



If, however, upon introduction of adlibitive mesh in the sea, 

 any inconvenience to sportsmen should arise from the fact, that 

 a few of the smallest grilse would be withdrawn from the 

 rivers, I think that a remedy could easily be found. As 

 I have mentioned before^ this kind of inconvenience comes under 

 the head of regulations tending to equalize the catch and protect 

 the spawning. 



In deUberations as to weekly and annual close-times the 

 above mentioned inconveniences may at any time be considered 

 according to their value. 



I will therefore recommend that the mesh regulation 

 should, as regards all fishing gear in the sea, he abolished, 



Nyt Mag. f. Naturv. XXXXII. IV. 21 



