Fishes of the Western North Atlantic 291 



St. Lawrence, and we find no report of them beyond Trois Pistoles, Quebec, about 

 opposite the Saguenay River. Although the area of abundance does not extend to the 

 northern shore of the Gulf, they are widespread there as well as in the Strait of Belle 

 Isle; the 1946 catch for this entire coastline was only 923,700 pounds. They have 

 been reported also for the banks in the northeastern corner of the Gulf between New- 

 foundland and Labrador (125). 



They are so plentiful along the Newfoundland shores of the Gulf that they have 

 long supported important fisheries in and off Bay of Islands and at Bonne Bay. Indeed, 

 "it seems proven . . . that practically all the Newfoundland bays are frequented by 

 spawning herring often in great numbers" (Thompson, 12 5: 36). Thus Fortune and 

 Placentia bays on the eastern part of the southern coast have been the sites of produc- 

 tive Atlantic Herring fisheries since the days of the early cod fishery; the local catch 

 is used chiefly as cod bait. 



The reported commercial catch of Atlantic Herring in 1946 for Newfoundland as 

 a whole was only about 6^ "/o of that for the southern part of the Gulf of St. Lawrence 

 on the Canadian side^^. This, taken at face value, suggests that the cold waters of eastern 

 Newfoundland produce fewer Atlantic Herring than the waters of the south and west 

 coasts. However this may be, they are at least moderately plentiful on the east coast 

 of Newfoundland right up to the entrance of the Strait of Belle Isle; Jeffers not 

 only reported them for Rahleigh but stated that they were numerous enough at Quirpon 

 to supply the local inhabitants with winter food for their sledge dogs {66: 206). They 

 have also been reported for the northern side of the Strait at Blanc Sablon (121 : 124), 

 and repeatedly for the Strait without specified locality. 



But a review (perhaps not sufficiently searching) of the various lists of Labrador 

 fishes has not yielded any reference to their presence anywhere to the north of the 

 Strait, apart from Stearns' report that they are abundant "north of Blanc Sablon, 

 growing more and more so all along the Labrador coast, the farther down which are 

 the greatest catches" (121: 124). 



The offshore boundary of their range follows in general the break in slope at the 

 outer edge of the American continental shelf. Schools are occasionally seen at the surface 

 or are picked up by trawlers here or there on Georges and Browns banks, fronting the 

 Gulf of Maine (J5: 95). It seems the situation is similar on the Nova Scotian Banks 

 eastward to Banquereau and on the Newfoundland Banks, where they are often taken 

 by otter trawlers in quantities {125: 36). All this has long been common knowledge 

 among the banks fishermen. During the early years of the Georges Bank cod fishery, 

 it was common practice to set herring drift nets for bait (j6: 102). And it may well 

 prove that they are much more plentiful on the banks than is now realized, for while 

 the numbers reported (75: 95, for Georges Bank) have been insignificant, no 

 serious attempt has yet been made to sample the offshore population with drift nets, 

 midwater trawls, or bottom trawls of a kind adapted to the capture of this partic- 

 ular fish. 



23. Data on Canadian catches are published annually in "Fisheries Statistics of Canada." 



i9« 



