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tilings that will involve so many incalculable consequences — particularly 

 so, as it seems to me that we can arrange the whole matter in a far easier 

 and more reliable way, only he means of regulations for the landing of 

 little fish, regulations which can be applied to those species of fish of which 

 we are more especially speaking here and have mentioned before, viz. the 

 more or less stationary fishes on our shores, such as eels and flat-fishes. 



I have paid no regard here to such species of fish as herring, gar- 

 fish, mackerel, cod, whiting, and haddock, partly because they do not be- 

 long to this whole series of investigations, partly because they are so bio- 

 logically different from the flat-fishes that the pursuit of them must be 

 regulated in an essentially different way — if on the whole it is necessary 

 to pay any regard to these species as far as protection goes. 



The principal scruple by fixing a suitable size limit for plaice has 

 always been, whether the fish can really live after they have first been 

 caught. I now mean to have proved that we need have no very great fear 

 of that, and — as I have shown too — we do not solve the question by 

 regulating the size of the meshes; for if the regulations are to be of any 

 help, it will generally be necessary to further support them by prohibitions 

 against the use of fish under a size limit. 



With regard to the other flat-fishes this question of meshes is some- 

 what different from what it is with regard to the plaice; with the exception 

 of the sole we can scarcely speak of any special fishing-gear with which to 

 catch them, i. e. they are taken in all sorts of nets intended for plaice, and 

 the result of this will be that the species of fish which are smaller than 

 the size limit for the plaice will not be caught, and that those which 

 are larger will be caught too small. 



The latter result will be a hard blow to the most valuable of them 

 all: the Turbot and the Brill. — A smaller size of the meshes might be 

 fixed for the sole, but then soles only and the smaller flat-fishes should be 

 caught with this, while the larger ones were to be thrown away when 

 caught. 



It is proved thus, I think, that we cannot as a rule protect the vari- 

 ous species of flat-fishes under a certain length fixed for each species, by re- 

 gulating the size of the meshes only, especially if the regulations must 

 be conformable to the average size of the species in our various seas; but 

 it must be supposed that we shall generally be able to obtain the wished 

 for result in another way: by prohibitions against the landing or sale of 



