102 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



off-lying islands some time before they make their way up the bays, two or three 

 weeks earlier, for instance, at Grand Manan, Jonesport, and about Mount Desert 

 Island than within Machias Bay. At Isle au Haut, at the eastern entrance of 

 Penobscot Bay, and at Castine, within tne Bay, they appear some time after the 

 middle of July, but not until the end of that month or the first of August at 

 Matinicus, while tlioy are not to be expected in the Massachusetts Bay region 

 imtU the last week in September. By October they are in full force all along the 

 shore of the Gulf from Cape Cod to Grand Manan, and are equally widespread, if 

 less abundant, inshore in November, occasionally being reported in December and 

 even later. It is probable that as the fish spawn out they move out promptly from 

 the spawning grounds into deep water, for but few recently spent fish are taken in 

 the Weil's. 



Summary. — The young herring 1 and 2 years of age come inshore early in 

 spring and spend the summer and autumn on the New England, New Brunswick, 

 and Nova Scotian coasts; the sexually mature herring come in onh' to spawn, while 

 the "fat" immature herring as a rule summer in the deeper M'ater outside the outer 

 islands. 



A question often asked but which can not yet be answered in a satisfactory way 

 is "jiist where do the Gulf of Maine herring winter?" In the case of the spring 

 spawners that formerly inhabited the Bay of Fundy the wintering ground apparently 

 lay between Grand Manan and the neighboring mainland of New Brunswick, where 

 a considerable Avinter fishery was formerly carried on. Probably the autumn 

 spawners, both young and adult, merely descend into deeper water to winter, as 

 is the case in European waters, but how far or how deep the great body of them go 

 is not known. It has been proven, however, that herring of practically all ages 

 remain in the open Bay of Fundy throughout the cold season, and the abundance 

 in the deeper v/ater layers of the northeast corner of the Gulf of pelagic euphausiid 

 shrimps, a favorite herring food, suggests this as a rich winter pasture for them. 



Herring on the offshore hanlcs. — Very little is known about the status of the 

 herring on the offshore banks. Occasionally schools (invariably proving to be 

 "fat" if captured) are encountered on Georges Bank and in the deep water to the 

 north of it (p. 101). During the early years of the Georges Bank cod fishery (about 

 the middle of the past century) great schools of herring were seen there and the 

 fishermen made a regular practice of setting herring drift nets for bait, but the 

 facts that the beam trawlere very seldom catch herring there (then only an odd 

 fish) and that the stomachs of cod and haddock caught on the Bank seldom if ever 

 contain herring,^' is evidence that no great body ' of the latter seeks the Bank for 

 wintering. 



Since sperling are unknown on Georges Bank — a fact commented on by Storer 

 long ago — it seems that herring seldom move so far out to sea until they are 2 

 years old. 



^ W. F. Clapp found no herrinp in many cod and haddock stomachs from Georges. 



' During the beam trawler investigations of 1913 herring were reported for almost every month in the year, never, however, 

 more than a dozen or so fish on any trip, and usually only one or two. 



