Ársrit Fiskifélags Íslands - 01.01.1933, Page 74

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measured and the material divided into classes according to lengtb
with a basis of 5 cm. It might perhaps have been desirable to draw
deviation-graphs in order to show with what fluctuation in size
the fish varied from year to year, but the investigation is scarcely
sufficiently old for any real information to be drawn from such ’
curves, and in addition there is the fact that the material of Dr.
Taaning and myself is not quite able to be compared. Instead I
have tabulated their sizes by showing how great a percentage of
all the fish caught, at the different times and in the several pla-
ces, was in each 5 cm. division; I refer to the figures nos. 1, 3, 4,
7, 8, 11, 13, and the tables nos. 27, 28, 33. Generally the proport-
ion of males and females has been reckoned according to the
size of the fish and to the place and time of catching. The result
has been indicated in the tables 4, 9, 14, 18, 22 and 28, where I
have given the percentage of females.
As regards age, three year-classes predominated, the broods
of 1922, 1923 and 1924. The 1922-class had already arrived on
the spawning grounds in the spring 1930, and previously shown
predominance in the young cod fisheries (Taaning, 1930). The
1924-class was also expected to be very good, as eelseine in-
vestigations in the years 1925—27 had proved its absolute pre-
dominance in the East Iceland fiords (Friðriksson, 1928). On the
other hand the 1923-class was considered of little importance as
it had nowhere shown any great predominance until it spawned
for the first time in 1931. In the boat catch the 1923-class was
at first every where predominating, at least until April, in the
warm and mixed waters; with the exception of the fish caught
in nets at Vestmanna Islands, where the 1922-class predominated.
On the other hand, the 1922-class predominated in the cold waters
of East Iceland and in the catch of Hornafjörður where the warm
and cold waters meet. Also in most places off the coast when
the catches became less, the predominance of the 1922-class was
found to be greater than of the 1923. All the time there was a
considerable proportion of the 1924-cIass, and this class predom-
inated in Grindavík during the season, and in the mixed and cold
waters towards the end of the season. The cold waters showed
a considerable number from an older stock (1919 and 1917, Taa- >
ning 1930), which is now passing away, see also figures: 2, 5, 6, lr
9, 10 and 11, and the tables 23, 24, 29, 30 and 34. In many ways
the age of trawler-caught fish differed from that of those taken
in boats, in many places especially were the fish noticeably
younger. It seems as if the years 1927 and 1930 will turn out
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