SELECT COMMITTEE ON THE SEA FISHERIES BILL. 177 



By a further Decree of 17th August, 1900, applicable to Scheldt and Zealand "Waters, 

 it is forbidden (Article 23) to have in a vessel cauf or ben any fish under the following sizes 

 ■or weights : — 



Plaice - ] 



Mounders - i- 16 cm. 



Smelts - - J 



Oysters - 6 cm. on narrowest part. 



Mussels - 4 cm. 



Lobsters 20 cm. 



Mullet - i- kilo. 



Size is measured from point of head to end of tail fin. 



SWEDEN. 



Royal Fishenj Law, 2dth June, 1852. 



Prescribes that " fishing shall be so carried on that the spawn shall not be destroyed, Sweden. 

 and that the fish after spawning and the tender young shall not be taken." 

 Section 23 prohibits the taking of — 



Lobsters less than 21 cm. 

 Oysters ,, „ 59 mm. 

 Eels less than 37 cm. must not be landed or sold in Malmohus. 



The fisheries are regulated locally by regulations sanctioned by the various District 

 ■Governors. 



NORWAY. 



The only existing prohibition is with regard to lobsters, for which the mimimum limit is Norway 

 21 cm. (Law, 29th June, 1894.) 



Ordinances, however, are in force in the northernmost districts forbidding the use of 

 young fish for manure or their sale to guano manufactories. 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



There is no Federal statute bearing on the subject of undersized fish. Individual United States, 

 States, however, have in many cases enacted laws intended to prevent the capture of 

 small fish, such laws pertain more especially to freshwater fish. In Rhode Island the 

 minimum size for lobsters has been fixed at 9 inches. 



The flat-fishes in the United States are, with the exception of the halibut, compara- 

 tively unimportant. In the absence of the beam trawl fishery, the flat-fish resources are 

 undeveloped, and there has been no occasion to conduct investigations with a view to 

 their protection. In the great pound-net and trap-net fisheries on the coasts and in the 

 great lakes there is a large and unavoidable destruction of small fish, notwithstanding 

 ■that a minimum size of mesh may be enforced, 



