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One should think that the fishermen in the Cattegat would he glad to see 

 such a regulation as the above-mentioned one with respect to a size limit for 

 the plaice, and most of them I dare say will also be so. The fishermen how- 

 ever, who carry on a coast-fishery from open boats in the northern part of 

 the Cattegat, from the Skaw and Aalbaek, will be sure to object to it. For 

 there are. as above stated, almost exclusively young plaice in the seas near 

 these shores, and even if they were more protected than they are now. these 

 fishermen would scarcely get the opportunity of catching any larger fish, as the 

 plaice removes from the shore the more it grows, and in this way gets outside 

 the territory of the coast-fishermen, if in course of time the size limit of the 

 smallest plaice is made much higher, these people therefore will be almost 

 excluded from the plaice-fishery. 



The coast-fishermen who live at the places where the young plaice lives 

 will he sorry to see a severe protection. — 



Larger places of that sort will, in the Cattegat, scarcely be found at any 

 other fishing-grounds than in the cove of Aalbsek from the Skaw to Frederiks- 

 luivn. tin nigh (compare ante) little plaice also five at Lsesso and farther south- 

 wards along the eastern shores of Jutland; but of fishing- villages whose plaice- 

 fishery is principally based on small (i. e. young) fish there are only Aalbaek 

 and. in part, the Skaw. 



By fixing a size limit, however, it was just the intention to prevent the 

 catching of these little fish wherever they were found east of the Skaw. As they 

 now principally live only at the above fishing-places, the whole regulation 

 would lose its power, if such places were allowed to carry on their fishery 

 for these little fish as unimpeded as before. These people declare even the 

 present size limit for the plaice to be a hindrance to them — and they carry 



of Ear greater moment with us than it seems to be in England, the matter would 

 have turned out very differently. 



According to my preliminary investigations, the female eels as a rule do not 

 breed till they are c. 19 — 20 inches long, while by far the greater number of males 

 do not reach this length when full-grown. — Here the propagation theory would be 

 obliged to require a size limit of at least 20 inches, in order to protect the stock 

 of eels satisfactorily; but then the males could not be caught at all. The growth 

 theory, on the other hand, requires only that the eels have reached a suitable mar- 

 kef value before they are caught, and tins will, presumably, lie attained at con- 

 siderably under 20 inches. How this question may be solved will be further dis- 

 cussed in a succeeding report. The remarkable thing in the eel-fisheries, in 

 contradistinction to all other fisheries, is, we know, that they are and must be 

 based on catching eels that have never spawned — as far as we are acquainted with 

 the biology of the eel at present. — iSee my preliminary note: >On the breeding 

 dress of the eel in ■ Dansk Fiskeriforenings MedlemsblaiU, p. 421 sei|i|., 18931 



