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(1914) [MARC] Author: Joseph Guinchard
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salt-water fishing.

227

value to about 3 million kronor annually. Table 40 gives returns
concerning the import and export of fish.

About 40 000 people live exclusively by fishing, and it also constitutes
a more or less considerable subsidiary industry, both for the
coast-population and for the agricultural population in the interior of the country.

The Baltic, which washes the east and south coasts of Sweden, is an inland
sea containing a low proportion of salt, which decreases from south to north,
and, in the Gulf of Bothnia as well as in the inner bays and fiords of the
archipelagoes, is only minimal. The salt-constituent of the water increases,
however, from the Kattegat northward, and in Bohus Bay, the water of which stands
in more direct connection with the North Sea, it is about the same as in this
last-mentioned sea. A natural consequence of this fact is that the proportion
of salt-water fish is considerably greater there than in the Baltic, where there
,are but few and they decrease in number towards the north in proportion to
the decreasing salt-percentage of the water. But in the Baltic there is another
remarkable circumstance, namely, that along the coast, and especially in the
archipelagoes, purely fresh-water species occur in equally great or greater numbers than
the salt-water species. Thus, of about 40 kinds of Swedish fresh-water fish, no
less than 30 species are also found in the Baltic, and some of them are a
lucrative source of income to fishermen.

Another circumstance affecting the fishing is that a large portion of the coast
is bordered by a fringe of innumerable larger or smaller islands and rocks, forming
a so-called "Skärgård".

A consequence of the above circumstances is that the difference between
saltwater and fresh-water fishing is less marked in the Baltic than on the west coast
of Sweden and in countries surrounded by salter seas. In the Baltic, the Swedish
fishery is chiefly coast-fishing; on the West Coast and especially in Göteborg
och Bohus Län, the fishery is rapidly becoming deep sea fishing.
Furthermore, in comparing the fisheries of Sweden with those of other countries, it is
worthy of notice that, in Sweden, the boats and fishing-tackle are owned by the
fishermen themselves, the members of the crew being part-owners in the boat,
and the profits are divided according to the shares owned, after a certain
portion has been deducted for keeping the boat in repair. It was only when
steam-trawling was introduced on the West Coast some few years ago by shipping- or
other companies, that Swedish fishermen were engaged as hired crews.

Salt-Water Fishing.

For the Swedish fishery, herring (Clupea harengus) and small (or
Baltic) herring (Clupea harengus, var. membras L.) are the most
important of all. Swedish species. Herring-fis’hing in Bohuslän attracts the
greatest attention, both on account of the great proportions which it
assumes at certain times, and also because of a peculiar circumstance with
respect to the appearance of the herring which has been characteristic of
the fishery as far back as history goes. For, after having appeared along
the coast and entered the fiords for several decades, the herring has for
long periods ceased to enter the Bohus archipelago, where, during these
intervals, only the ordinary coast herring has appeared and then but in
small numbers in comparison with the good fishing years. Such a period

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