Report of the Coalfish Working Group

Before the Second World War no continuous investigations of the coal-fish resources were being carried out, and the literature from this period contains only reports on a few more or less isolated investigations and casual observations. 

After the war routine investigations on coalfish were started, first by Germany and Norway and somewhat later by England and the Farces. These investigations have included market sampling, research vessel surveys, tagging experiments, and to a smaller extent coalfish egg and larval studies.
The present report is based on all national data derived from these investigations, including published and unpublished national statistics of commercial catch and effort. The first parts of the report give a review of the present state of knowledge of the coalfish resources and the way they are exploited, including attempts at making mortality estimates and assessments of the effects of fishing on the stocks. From these emerge the needs for further investigations discussed in the last chapter.