Kolloen and Elling, 1948). The differences 

 occur because I have included the catches of 

 boats smaller than 20 net tons, which fished 

 only a few days of each season, and also be- 

 cause I have made adjustments for movements 

 of boats between districts, especially those that 

 divided their time between Kodiak and Prince 

 William Sound during particular fishing sea- 

 sons. 



Quotas Permitted by Regulation and 

 Annual Catches from Quota Areas 

 (Table 2) 



The reduction fishery was regulated by re- 

 stricting the time, the place, the method, and 

 the catch of the fishing fleet. Many of the reg- 

 ulations imposed on the herring fishery were 

 actually made to protect other fishery re- 

 sources, principally salmon. 



Catch quotas, which were believed to be a 

 particularly efficient way of limiting the her- 

 ring fishery, were first introduced in Alaska 

 in 1940 and were applied to all three districts 

 (Table 2). Catch quotas restricted the her- 

 ring fleet by limiting the weight of fish that 

 could be removed annually from specific areas. 

 By 1952, the effectiveness of the quota system 

 was being questioned, and the system was 

 abandoned in the Prince William Sound and 

 Kodiak districts. Biological considerations 

 were usually not the sole determining factors in 

 setting annual quotas. Other problems such 

 as economics of the fishery, possibilities of gear 

 interference, and political pressure from seg- 

 ments of the salmon industry also had an ef- 

 fect on setting the final quota figure. For ex- 

 ample, regulations restricting salmon fishing 

 were often expanded to include herring fishing 

 as well because herring and salmon boats some- 

 times fished in the same areas. 



The herring fleet seldom took the allotted 

 quota in a particular area, although annual 

 landings in a district such as southeastern 

 Alaska sometimes exceeded the sum of the 

 district quota because a portion of the catches 

 came from outside established quota areas. 

 Quotas were frequently assigned to areas where 

 the fleet seldom fished, and often no landings 

 were made in an entire season from such areas. 



Age Composition of Samples 

 (Tables 3, 4, 5, and 6) 



The age of herring was determined by count- 

 ing the annuli on scales. The scales were read 

 (examined) at the sampling site by the sampler 

 and later verified by other persons; low-power 

 microscopes were used until 1957, when they 

 were replaced by microprojectors. 



The new annulus on a herring scale appears 

 near the time of spawning. For convenience 

 in age designation, April is used as the birth 

 date for Alaska herring, although spawning 

 ranges from early March to late June. Be- 

 cause the reduction fishery was sampled in the 

 summer, fish designated as age III are in their 

 fourth year of life; those age IV are in their 

 fifth year of life; and so on. Fish older than 

 age XII are not included in the tables because 

 their aggregate percentage for all years ac- 

 counts for less than 1^'r of the fish sampled. 



All of the tables that follow are based on 

 the number of fish and the age determinations 

 in Tables 3-6. 



Mean Weight by Age 

 (Tables 7, 8, 9, and 10) 



The average or mean weight for fish in each 

 age class (Tables 7-10) was obtained by sum- 

 ming the weight of the individuals and divid- 

 ing by their number. The whole herring was 

 weighed wet on a 500-g scale with 2-g divisions. 

 The mean weights are averages derived from 

 the sum of all subsamples taken each year. 



Mean Body Length by Age 

 (Tables 11, 12, 13, and 14) 



Two methods have been used for determining 

 the body length of herring taken by the re- 

 duction fishery. Before 1957, body lengths 

 were measured (with a machine described by 

 Thompson (1917)) from the tip of the closed 

 mandible to the posterior margin of the silvery 

 epidermis on the caudal peduncle. In 1957 and 

 later, body lengths were measured to the pos- 

 terior end of the hypural plate (found by dis- 

 section), and the measuring machine was 



