It may be seen from the experience of the European fisheries that the considerable increase 

 in the catches of herring noted during the last few decades occurred in the main as a result of the 

 intensified fishing on Atlantic-Scandinavian herring (Figure 12). 



Yearly catches of bank herring from the North Sea amounted in 1913 to 6.5 million centners. 

 Despite the considerable improvement of the drift-fishing technique and organization of a large- 

 scale trawl fishing in North Sea, catches increased but insignificantly during the last 40 years. 



Thousand tons 

 1500 



tgJO 19/5 t320 1925 /9J0 1935 f9^ff mS WO t95S 



Figure 12. Catches of herring obtained in the north-eastern zone of Atlantic. 1. Atlantic- 

 Scandinavian herring; 2 . North Sea, British Channel, Irish Sea, and north- 

 western coast of Scotland; 3. Kattegat and Skagerak; 4. Baltic Sea. 



The catches obtained in the English Channel, the Kattegat & Skagerak, and the Baltic Sea 

 also increased little during that time, whereas the catches of Atlantic-Scandinavian herring increas- 

 ed ten- fold during the same period. 



Catches of Atlantic -Scandinavian herring increased most in Norwegian waters. Up to 1915, 

 the annual herring catches in Norway did not exceed 3 million centners. In the thirties, they reach- 

 ed 5-7 million centners and during recent years they amounted to 10-12 and more million centners 

 a year. During the last two decades, a fishing industry developed in Icelandic waters, based on the 

 Atlantic-Scandinavian race of herring. Atlantic-Scandinavian herring became the object of large- 

 scale fishing conducted by the Soviet Union during the season when these herring are feeding in the 

 Norwegian and Greenland seas . 



There is no doubt that, given rational exploitation, the catches of the stock of Atlantic- 

 Scandinavian herring may be greatly increased. However, the existing system of exploitation of 

 their reserves can by no means be considered as rational, since a considerable number of these 

 herring are caught very young, long before they become sexually mature . 



56 



