﻿69 



proceeding, so that a fishing-apparatus which to-day is legal, to-morrow per- 

 haps is illegal. This gives much trouble to the officers who have to 

 control them, and is the cause of great expense on the part of the 

 fishermen. 



That this circumstance in itself is a very heavy complaint against 

 regulations as to the size of the meshes is evident from the great num- 

 ber of fishing-apparatus which are condemned in the Limfjord when they 

 become older, because their meshes have shrunk too much. 



It is thus in general quite impossible by law to take care that the various 

 species of fish are caught with the meshes that are most suitable to them, 

 but there are nevertheless certain exceptions where regulations of this kind 

 may have some value, viz. where a minimum size of meshes which, ac- 

 cording to the local conditions, may really to some degree protect the fish 

 can be fixed for all fishing-gear of certain classes, for instance for seines or 

 iveels. In seas where the income of the fishery is greatly dependent on 

 the eel, as in nearly all our smaller seas, a size of the meshes Hke that 

 which we have in the Limfjord for the eel-seines can really protect the eel 

 under a certain size, as it can be enjoined that no seines with smaller 

 meshes that those which are fixed for eel-seines may be employed in the 

 said seas; for this is a regulation which can be controlled. 



When we have gone futher and have tried to fix the size of the 

 meshes in seines intended for the larger fishes, for instance the plaice, then 

 it seems to me that we have gone too far. Moreover the use of plaice- 

 seines has been forbidden during certain months, and the result has been 

 that the fishermen use eel-seines for the catching of plaice during the time 

 when the plaice-seines are forbidden. The latter cannot easily be forbidden, 

 from the above mentioned reasons, when we are not sure that the fish 

 caught in these seines can be thrown into the water again in a state in 

 which they are capable of living. 



Another case in which we might think it practicable to fix the size 

 of the meshes is to be found at a place as Sseby, where at present the 

 fishery is only carried on with very few sorts of fishing-gear, scarcely any 

 but plaice-nets with so large meshes that they can only fish large soles 

 and suitable plaice. 



Under such circumstances a fixed size of the meshes could be use- 

 ful; but if the fishermen afterwards took into then- heads to fish for had- 

 dock or cod — or if this became necessary - - then it would also at such 

 a place be unjustifiable to forbid nets suitable for these fish; and if the 



