have fallen off sharply , In Kandalaksha Gulf, the spring fishery has latterly undergone very great 

 changes. The use of zaveskli/has greatly increased the productivity of the fishery and has in- 

 creased the catch of spawning herring. Fishing has been transferred rigjit to the spawning grounds 

 and has begun also to utilize the movement of the herring into those sectors where in the past, owing 

 to the absence of suitable places for sweep-net fishing, no herring were caught. 



The use of zaveski has also lengthened the duration of the spring catch; furthermore this 

 lengthening took place principally in the direction of a greater catch of spawning herring. The 

 spawning migrations of small herring in Kandalaksha Gulf usually begin in the first ten days of 

 Apra. To begin with, the herring are caugfit in gill-nets; first in nets stretched before the entr- 

 ance to the inlets, afterwards in nets standing in the inlets themselves. Afterwards the herring 

 are caught in drag nets and still later in zaveski . The greatest number of herring fall into the 

 zaveski in the period when the sweep-net fishing is in fact ending. 



In 1936, net fishing for small Kandalaksha herring in the inner part of Kandalaksha Gulf 

 (inlets Valas-Ruchey, Palkina and others) went on from the 7th to the 17th of April, fishing with 

 drag nets - from the 16th to the 23rd April and with zaveski - from the 20th to the 26th April . The 

 biggest catches were in the zaveski from the 23rd of April, when herring were no longer being 

 caught in sweep-nets. 



Observations of sexual maturity showed that the most intensive spawning of herring in 1936 

 in Valas-Ruchey Inlet was from the 20th to the 25th of April and was accompanied by massive 

 catches in the zaveski. Furthermore, it was noticed that the nets and the drag nets caught prin- 

 cipally herring still preparing to spawn; whereas, in the zaveski, spawning herring with flowing 

 sexual products . Thus the use of zaveski prolonged the duration of spring fishery by way of the 

 massive catches of herring on the spawning-beds themselves. 



As a result of the fact that the reproduction of the White Sea herring takes place in a nar- 

 row coastal zone where fishing is easy and the fact that all the adult herring swarm together by the 

 shore for the spawning, its fishery in the period of reproduction is the principal factor influencing 

 the stock of White Sea herring. In the spawning period, a great quantity of reproducing herring arr 

 taken out and thus the reproductive ability of the herring as a whole is sharply reduced. 



It is characteristic that the stocks of herring have fallen most sharply in those fishery 

 regions which have been subjected to the most intensive fishing and in which, consequently, the 

 conditions of reproduction of the herring have been the most adversely affected. It is therefore 

 quite understandable that in Kandalaksha Gulf where the spring fishery for the last 30 years has 

 been the most developed, the herring stocks have dropped very sharply . 



On the left shore of Onega Gulf where the spring fishery began comparatively recently and 

 where the same equipment and aids to fishing have not been employed as in the Kandalaksha Gulf, 

 the herring stock is in a noticeably better condition, and Indeed there is even noticeable some in- 

 crease in catches. 



As a result of the intensification of the spring fishery, the composition of the spawning 

 population of small White Sea herring has markedly changed, and the fishery has begiin to be based 

 on the catch of younger age groups (Table 2) . 



V Author's footnote: "A construction of fixed traps". Various meanings of this word: 1. 

 curtain; 2. curtain-rod; 3. (leaf) hinge. Presumably a local word in the sense in which 

 the author uses It . Trans. 



276 



