﻿such sj>ecies of fish, under the size fixed lot each of them, sis are generally 



able to live after they have been caught. 



We may forbid by law to catch undersized fish., but they will always 

 be caught notwithstanding, in smaller or greater numbers, as long as 

 it is permitted to fish the small species of fish, whether we regulate 

 the meshes or not; but when the fishermen throw out again the under- 

 sized fish of such species as are able to live afterwards, these species would 

 not suffer any very great harm. 



Among the species particularly tenacious of life are fortunately our more 

 valuable fishes, and this is not accidental; for from that very reason that then 

 skin, and the scales fixedin it, is so strong and not so easily destroyed, these fish 

 are tenacious of life, and from the same reason they aire jit for sale; for their 

 appearance does not suffer too much by the various transportations to 

 which every fish, as a rule, is exposed before it is eaten. Moreover this 

 tenacity of life permits the fishmonger to keep the fish alive in tanks for a 

 long time without diminishing the value of the flesh, while the price is per- 

 haps rising considerably. 



As living fish are a necessity for Denmark, and particularly for Copen- 

 hagen, a considerable part of our trade and fishery is based on keeping 

 such fish alive as can be kept so. This system can be carried through 

 only where the principal market is situated directly by the sea, and this is 

 the case only with few great fish-markets. 



This system may have its weak points, hut it has surely been one 

 of the principal reasons why most of our fishing-apparatus, in contradistinc- 

 tion for instance to the English steam-trawls, are constructed with the view 

 of catching the fish as unhurt as possible — and this again is a great help 

 in carrying through the regulations for the protection of fish under the 

 size limit. 



If. therefore, instead of regulations as to the meshes in the fishing- 

 gear for flat-fishes, we got prohibitions against the selling or landing of 

 flat-fishes under the sizes suitable for each species, we should with respect 

 to the plaice get exactly what we aimed at by fixing the size of the 

 meshes, but we might in addition to that obtain the same thing with respect to 

 the other species which are tenacious of life, for instance The Turbot and 

 The Brill etc.: and we need have no control with the fishing-gear and the 

 fishery on the sea, as a rule, a close inspection of the flsh at the markets 

 being the principal thing. 



The only thins of which we must here be sure is that the little fish 



