able and only slightly below the increment of the year before that; the stages of sexual maturity 

 were not above the II and II- III stages . Herring of the latter group were of the same age, however, 

 and showed an incomparably higher growth rate; the increment for the previous year was insigni- 

 ficant; the sexual maturity was at the III stage and higher. Herring of the former group had not 

 spawned yet, whereas the latter fish had already spawned. 



The average length of six- and seven-year-old herring from the group of the herring that 

 have already spawned proved to be very high: the length of six-year-old fish (S4-) was 27.5 cm., 

 that of seven-year-old herring, 28.7 cm. The percentage of six-year-old herring in the catches 

 from the Spitsbergen region that had already spawned was very low: six-year-old herring of the 

 1934 year class formed only 1.2 per cent of the specimens that had already spawned, the seven- 

 year-old fish of the 1933 year class, 10.9 per cent. 



The above investigations enabled us to demonstrate the following: in the explored zone of 

 the Spitsbergen current, i. e. in its northern half, there exist but few herring 26-27 cm. in length; 

 specimens 6-7 years of age that have already spawned once or twice are extremely rare among 

 adult fish; the growth rate of the six- and seven-year-old fish that have already spawned is very 

 high. 



25 

 20 



rs 

 /<? 



25 

 20 

 15 



to 



I '\ 



T1 = 892GC0 



\n=J0570 



\ 

 t 



10 



ts 



20 



25 



30 



35 



B 



n --too 961) 





I 



i 



n-3527 



I 2 J ii 5 6 7 8 9 >0n t2l3U,l5l6 



Figure 3. Length and age of herring from the Barents Sea and northern zone of the 

 Spitsbergen current (after L. A. Bakunenko and M. M. Vykhristyuk; 

 A-length; B-age). 



30 



