pearls or for human consxanption (whitebait) ==regardless of the 

 fact that enormous amotmts of young herring are destroyed annually 

 by the beam fisheryo There has been a very intensive herring 

 fishery along the Norwegian coast for several decades^ where very 

 great amounts of one=year=old herring are also caughto Herej too, 

 there is no indication of a state of overfishingo 



It is shown by the enormous catches made since the capitula- 

 tion of Germany that the density of the herring stock increased 

 considerably,, The decrease of this density by increasing fishing 

 intensity is a normal manifestation and if not accompanied by 

 other criteria of overfishing is not an indication of a state of 

 overfishingo 



Most of the herring are caught with driftnets andj, for 

 technical reasons^ only the ships which fish this way could be 

 used to determine the fishing intensityo The Germans, however, 

 have started to fish for herring on a large scale with trawlnets 

 since 1925o In England and Holland, fishing by this method has 

 increased also, but on a very much smaller scaleo There is a 

 possibility that the continental countries especially will make 

 more intensive use of the herring-trawl fisheryo This will 

 increase the possibility of overfishingo To make interference 

 possible, it is desirable to keep the herring stock imder 

 scientific control, although there does not appear to be much 

 danger o 



To find a bigger market for the herring seems to be a 

 greater problem than how to catch themo 



There are several possible reasons for the great difference 

 between the effect of fishing on bottom fish and the herringo 

 First, the North Sea can possibly absorb more herring than it can 

 bottom fish because there is more food present for the herringo 

 The herring's food consists chiefly of small shrimp=like creatures 

 belonging to the plankton, which in turn live on the phyto plank ton© 

 The food of the bottom fishes consists of lower forms of bottom 

 organisms, which depend for their food chiefly on the dead and 

 sinking plankton organisms, principally those which have been, 

 left by the herringo While the herring is only one step removed 

 from the phytoplankton, the bottom fishes receive the nutrients 

 from the phytoplankton only after it has passed through numerous 

 other organisms o As we have seen, the food is used partly for 

 growth and for metabolismo Only the first amount of food can, 

 after the organism has been eaten, benefit another organism again© ' 

 The food used for maintenance is lost to the food ohain« TTaerefore, 

 only, a part of the food left by the herring benefits the bottom 

 fishes (Baerends, 1946) o 



m. 



