A. General Remarks on the Lofoten Fisheries. 



FOR many centuries Norwegians have gone to the Lofoten islands 

 in order to fish cod. At several places in the old sagas 

 accounts are found showing that the winter fisheries have been of 

 great importance during all the time that Norway has existed as a 

 united kingdom. In the past, as well as at present, the cod fishery 

 of Lofoten has given a certain harvest every year, though the 

 amount of the catch has varied very much. The fact that the 

 Lofoten has from ancient times been known as the place where 

 men could most surely harvest from the riches of the sea, can 

 probably be adduced to a j^^urality of circumstances. The Lofoten 

 fishery is a "gaat-fisher;^!", i- e. Hie arrival of the ocean cod 

 within reach of the several catch'ing gear (sink-line, set-line, nets, 

 &c.) is originated by the powerful impulse of propagation, which, 

 supported by a remarkable instinct, causes large masses of sexually 

 ripe individuals of cod to move in upon the coast banks. There 

 is certainly reason to think that during the spawning time the cod 

 does not deny its nature and despises the claims of its stomach, 

 but still the real thing seems to be that during the spawning time 

 the feeding question becomes one of secondary importance. It 

 is also well known that the Finmarken "lodde-fishery'' is more 

 variable than the Lofoten fishery, a fact evidently caused by the 

 circumstance that the migration of the cod shoals in the latter case 

 depends on the presence of the "lodde" (mallotus villosus). The 

 chief cause of the favourable results of the long-established Lofoten 

 fisheries is certainly to be looked for in the construction of the 

 ocean bottom. By the soundings of the government chartographers 

 and of the Norwegian North-Ocean Expedition, a good survey has 

 been obtained of the bottom of the ocean; thus the existence has 

 been proved of considerable bank plateaux outside the chief districts 

 for the cod fisheries. Especially that of Lofoten is surrounded by 

 fast banks, which the North-Ocean Expedition could follow all the 

 way up to Spitsbergen. ' The circumstance that the water has a 

 motion that makes it wash against the edge of the banks and thus 

 causes a stowing up of the planctonic food material, is most pro- 

 bably an essential condition for the rich development of benthos 

 forms of which the above mentioned Norwegian expedition has 

 given sufficient evidence. Prof. Sars says in the report of the 

 expedition of 1877: "Outside the district of Aalesund stretches 



the bank-edge Storeggen, already known and used for bank fishing 

 in older days ; outside the Lofoten district however lies, as we have 

 been able to show, an edge of perfectly like condition. But in the 

 same relation, in which the Lofoten fisheries surpass the Aale- 

 sund fisheries in importance, in the same relation the now dis- 

 covered Lofoten edge has an extent as much larger than that of 

 Storeggen. On this extensive edge, which stretches along the whole 

 of the long island group of Lofoten and further northward, as well 

 as in the coast sea lying inside of it, there is no lack of room 

 even for such enormous masses of fish as those appearing during 

 the Lofoten winter fisheries." 



There are many reasons to believe that Mr. Sars is right in 

 describing this edge as the real hunting ground of the ocean cod. 

 Among other things may be mentioned that the hoe-fish hunters 

 report that this rapacious preying fish particularly sticks to the 

 edge mentioned. It is another thing that the fishing here can 

 hardly be carried on owing to the strong current. That also cod 

 and other bottom fish, as Hng, haddock, torsk, halibut, exist on 

 the extensive plateau inside the edge, has been proved by the 

 bank fishers. For that the "■banh-cod" is nothing but the Lofoten 

 "skreV has been made evident by the examinations of Mr. Sars. 

 The reason that the ocean cod in the summer is more sparely 

 caught by the fishermen, has probably to be sought in the circura- 

 stance that it then moves more thinly spread. A crowding-together 

 of the cod may however also occur in the summer time, viz. under 

 circumstances when some "aate" (food matter) appears in great 

 quantity. Rich catches of summer cod have thus been made occa- 

 sionally at Spitsbergen, as far north as the 80-th degree lat. Mr. 

 Saes in his report for 1878 statest hat the North Ocean Expedition 

 near Beeren Eiland fell in with large shoals of cod, which were 

 gorging in fly-aate (limacina Micina). During that same summer 

 large catches were also made at Norsk-0erne in shallow waters 

 (16—18 fathoms). Here too the limacina proved to form a main 

 part of the contents of the fish-stomach. Such a fishery, however,, 

 must be varying, just because it depends on a plancton organism 

 that is very irregular in its occurrence. In 1883 the summer 

 fishing at Spitsbergen failed completely, and since that time scarcely 

 any trial worth mentioning has been made. 



