Figure 5. — Hauling herring gill nets aboard theUetacomet . 



SUMMARY 



Findings of the limited exploratory fishing 

 activities during 1955-59 are: 



1. Zero-year-class herring appear in the 

 winter and early spring in the protected bays 

 and Inlets of the Maine coast between Portland 

 and Eastport and remain until late in the fol- 

 lowing fall when they are usually barely large 

 enough for utilization as sardines. 



2. Sardine-sized herring can be found during 

 winter, when they are generally absent from 

 upper strata of the water, lying close to the 

 bottom in deeper areas of large bays; they also 

 occur near the bottom in offshore waters of the 

 Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank in the winter. 



3. A scattering of apparently unschooled 

 large herring sometimes exists in open ocean 

 waters when schools or large numbers of the 

 fish are not in evidence. 



MS #1286 



GPO 862-57 1 



