114 THE CATCH OF HAKE 



operations of fishing- vessels. This year, for instance, there 

 occurred a positive glut off the ' Smalls ' — some thirty miles 

 from Milforcl Haven Heads — for about nine weeks from August 

 to October, near the region which Le Danois calls ' Entrance of 

 the Channel ' ; here the hake were following up a great school 

 of unusually large herrings, which had never been caught off 

 the Smalls before. This is ground which used to be immensely 

 rich in the late ' eighties ', but, as we shall see, was supposed by 

 the trawler owners to have been ' fished out ' shortly after- 

 wards. 



Then, again, for the first time in living memory quantities 

 of hake have been caught off the Irish coast between Waterford 

 and Cork, as this is written during December 1920. They are 

 feeding on mackerel, and their flesh is consequently so soft and 

 oily that they do not keep at all well off ice. 



The Wanderings of the Hake 



It is clear, however, that hake put in an appearance in shoals 

 at different times in different regions. As we shall see, the 

 industry has been at pains to explain these movements, and 

 more than one inquirer has suggested that the movements of 

 the hake might depend upon the movements of the fish — the 

 herrings, mackerel, pilchards, and poutassou — on which they 

 are wont to prey. Hunger is, however, certainly not the only 

 impulse behind these movements ; and Le Danois is of the 

 opinion that the decisive factor is the reproductive instinct. 

 His explanation is worth giving in detail for the benefit of 

 brother laymen. ' The body of the young fish ', he says, ' has 

 a fairly heavy density in comparison with sea-water, for it 

 consists practically entirely of close tissues — ^largely muscular ; 

 when the genital glands develop, the fish undergoes a diminution 

 in the density of its body, ancl the salinity and temperature of 

 the waters in which it usually lives compel it to make great 

 efforts in swimming. It proceeds to look for waters less dense, 

 less salt, and less cold — and this search — due to the principle 

 of minimum exertion — brings the fish towards our coasts, and 

 towards shallower depths. In fact the surface waters of the 

 Continental^ shelf are marked by a higher temperature and 

 a weaker degree of salinity than the waters of the great depths.' 



Le Danois is inclined to reject the old theory that the shoals 

 moved in search of particular kinds of animals suspended in 

 the water — particular kinds of ' plankton ' as the scientists 

 would say. He thinks that a fish which finds itself in waters 



* i.e. the sea floor between the shore and the 100-fathom line. 



