THE BIOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS OF THE FISHERY 



OF THE WHITE SEA HERRING 



B. M. Tambovtsev 



Investigations of the White Sea herring can be divided into two periods: 1) the study of the 

 systematic position and 2) the study of the biological structure or composition of catches. 



Even the first investigators Lepekhin (13), E)anilevsky (8) pointed out the heterogeneity of 

 the White Sea herring, and thus a study of the racial composition constitutes^ the sum of the work 

 of the first period /Rabiner son (14, 15, 16), Averintsev (1, 2), Antipova (Sy. 



The studies of the second period, carried out by the Kandalaksha station of VNIRO in the 

 years 1934-1941, and continued in the years 1942-1951 by the White Sea station of PINRO, were 

 concerned principally with the biological composition of catches. They made it possible to proceed 

 to the estimation of fish stocks and to catch forecasting /Averintsev (3), Dmitriev (9, 10), Tambov- 

 tsev (17, 18)7. 



Observations of the biological composition of catches allowed us even as early as 1939 to 

 note the diminution of the White Sea herring stock. 



Researches into reproduction and distribution in the period of fattening and in the winter 

 period led to a deeper understanding of the biology of the White Sea herring and made it possible to 

 plan measures towards the organization of a rational fishery for this fish. 



One of the biological peculiarities of the small form of the White Sea herring is the re- 

 stricted area over which it is found and the fact that it lives close to the coast. These^ herring are 

 peculiar to the White Sea, where they form separate biological schools /Dmitriev (11)/. The small 

 herring spend their whole life cycle in the White Sea, beyond the bounds of which they do not venture. 



A characteristic peculiarity of the White Sea herring is their attachment to the coastal 

 zone. This peculiarity is most marked in the reproductive period. The wintering of the small 

 White Sea herring is also bound up with the coastal zone . The small herring of the Onega and Dvlna 

 gulfs winter in the stretches of sea in front of rivers near the shore, where the inflow of fresh 

 water creates more favorable temperature conditions than in the open parts of these gulfs where, 

 as a result of the absence of a solid covering of ice, there is a marked fall in the temperatxure of 

 the water. Only the small Kandalaksha herring winters at a depth of from 25 to 50 metres in the 

 region of a warmer stratum of water with a temperature near 0. In the jieriod of fattening, the 

 area of distribution of the small White Sea herring extends into the coastal waters of the Tersky 

 coast . 



According to the researches of Borodatov and Dmitriev, in June and July the herring re- 

 main near the^oast and only in August-September move out into the open parts of the gulfs 

 /Dmitriev (11)7- 



Our researches allow us to conclude that numerically large year classes of small White 

 Sea herring are more widely distributed than numerically poor year classes. Researches of the 



273 



