290 Memoir Sears Foundation for Marine Research 



In practice it is possible to obtain advance information of the relative richness of broods and hence of the 

 relative success of future fisheries. But there still remain possible influences which militate against a forecast 

 of yield based entirely on this evidence, chief among these being the factors which govern migrations of herring. 



Methods of Fishing. Most of the fish are caught in traps known as wiers, In floating 

 traps, stop seines, purse seines, and drift nets; in the American bays and harbors, large 

 numbers, especially of the smaller sizes, are taken by "torching," i. e. by netting fish 

 attracted by a light. 



Range. Atlantic Herring in American waters range from Greenland to North 

 Carolina, but usually not in commercial abundance south of New Jersey; they are most 

 abundant north of Cape Cod. In Europe, where certain races enter brackish water, 

 they range from Spitsbergen, Novaya Zemlya, the Kara Sea, the White Sea, and 

 northern Norway south to the Straits of Gibraltar.^* 



Occurrence in the Western North Atlantic. Stray specimens have been reported for 

 as far south as Cape Hatteras, the lower part of Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, and New 

 Jersey {^g: 82; lig: 120; 57: 93); and only Irregularly do a few visit the coasts of 

 New York and Rhode Island. But they are seasonally abundant and generally distrib- 

 uted throughout the Woods Hole region, though not In any great numbers (J2J: 741). 

 Although they appear sporadically in the Massachusetts Bay region, they are plentiful 

 enough In some years to support local fisheries. Along the coast of eastern Maine, and 

 in the Passamaquoddy region at the mouth of the Bay of Fundy,^'* they are not only 

 far more plentiful but more regular in their comings and goings. But farther up the 

 Bay of Fundy, on the New Brunswick side and at its head, they are far less plentiful, 

 probably because of the turbidity of the water there. However, along the Nova Scotian 

 side, toward the mouth of the Bay, they are sufficiently abundant so that they yielded 

 between five and six million pounds In 1946 (Annapolis and Digby counties); Indeed In 

 the general vicinity of Yarmouth on the west coast of the province they are so plenti- 

 ful that great numbers of giant tuna congregate there summer after summer to harry 

 and destroy the schools In the local tide rips." Thence eastward along the outer coast of 

 Nova Scotia they are abundant and generally distributed; witness a reported catch be- 

 tween the vicinity of Cape Sable and Cape Breton of something more than 4 1 million 

 pounds in 1946, and 21 million pounds in 1956, the latest year for which pertinent 

 statistics are readily available. — h. b. b. 



There are fewer, it seems, along the Nova Scotian shore line of the Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence; landings there In 1946 were 1,330,000. But thence westward these fish 

 are numerous again throughout the southern side of the Gulf, 2- around Antlcosti 

 Island (described there as in "bancs enormes"; 116: 285) and along the Gaspe shore 

 in the lower part of the St. Lawrence estuary. But they are progressively fewer up the 



19. "With the favourable climatic conditions in Arctic regions, the Herring has spread to Jan Mayen, Spitzbergen, 

 Nowaja Zemlya and Kara Sea" (Jensen, 67:64). 



20. For details as to their regional and seasonal occurrence in the Gulf of Maine, see Bigelow and Schroeder (75:93). 



21. The annual "Tuna Tournament" is held at Wedgeport, Nova Scotia, not far from Yarmouth. 



22. 1946 catches, 36,103,600 for the New Brunswick shore of the Gulf; 6,oSo,ioo for Prince Edward Island; 15,078,000 

 for the Magdalens; 15,525,000 for Bonaventure and Gaspe counties, Quebec. 



