﻿60 



species of fish they have been accused of pursuing, and. I dare say 

 deservedly. 



/ must therefore suppose that a very liigli per cent of the plaice in the 

 Cattegat which now reach only 10 inches would reach 14 inches if they were 

 Protected, and they would in that case produce a much greater quantity of 

 meat every year. 



It might be objected here that it would possibly be still more profit- 

 able to permit the plaice to reach 15 or 16, nay 20 inches before they 

 were fished. 



Yes, it is very possible — and here we arrive at the most difficult point 

 of the whole matter, viz. the question: which size icill give the greatest profit 

 on the stock? We cannot answer this question till we know exactly the growth 

 mid average mortality of the fish at every stage of its life — and such exact 

 knowledge we shall scarcely ever be able to get*). The only thing we can 

 do, therefore, is to try to base the fishery on larger fish than those on which 

 it is now actually based, and then go on in that way as long as it pays. It 

 will scarcely be profitable to stop till we have got so far at least that the main 

 quantity of the fish that are caught is so large that they obtain the highest 

 price per ll>. which on the whole is paid for this species of fish, i. e.. c. 14 inches 

 in length, or 4 inches longer than the present size. 



As I have said, it is possible only through experience to find the size 

 that gives the greatest profit, and we cannot say, for instance, that our 

 object is only to get a stock of fish which is so richly represented by 

 large fish as the sea in question is able to produce it; for if these large fish 

 were 5 years old they would take much room up for those that are 4, 3, 2, 

 and 1 year old, and which also ought to be permitted to grow up; and if the 5 

 years old fish were too numerous, the stock certainly would be valuable, but 

 it could not continue every year to give the greatest profit. — Just think of a 

 forest, for instance, consisting almost exclusively of large trees; it may represent 

 the greatest value of wood which it is possible to find on the area; but if care 

 is not taken to replace the large trees with smaller ones, the forest can not 

 continue every year to give its maximum profit. 



It is possible then that the grown-up fish can be too richly represented ; 

 yet, in practical life, as far as the fish in the sea are concerned, where the 



:s ) These matters are .still more complicated, because we have various races of plaice 

 which do not grow alike. In the eastern ami northern parts of the Cattegat, how- 

 ever the question is, I dare say, chiefly of one race, and that a very large one. 



