57 



the coast. It is also plain that the small sample of drift net herring 

 obtained from Yarmouth in 1911 agree in character with this race. 

 So that probably the whole of the summer east coast herring belong 

 to one race. 



If the attemj)t now being made to define the races sustains the 

 broad results of this examination it will follow that the annual 

 migration from the Atlantic is taken part in by the general enormous 

 body of herring w^hich becomes segregated during the migration 

 into a succession of spawning schools. This will affect merely the 

 mature fish. It has been shown in another part of this Report, 

 page 50, that the mature of other fish when they receive the impulse 

 for ths spawning migration do not migrate to a particular spawning 

 ground, and it is not any more likely that herring are able to time 

 their spawning season as to arrive at a particular spawning ground. 

 The whole of the east coast region of the North Sea may be looked 

 upon as the spawning ground of the herring, particular areas of 

 which are especially suitable for the purpose of affording attachment 

 to the eggs, and there is a great deal of evidence to show that these 

 are by no means constant. 



The trawl or Dogger Bank herring belongs to a race which 

 probably hails from a more northern deep sea winter region. 



The important point with reference to our enquiry is, however, 

 the demonstration that the race is evidently distinct from the east, 

 coast race of summer herring. If the trawl fishermen therefore 

 confine their attention exclusively to this race, which they can do 

 by refraining from trawling for herring in other regions than that 

 frequented by the race, they cannot be blamed for injuring the drift 

 net or east coast race of summer herring. That the}" did not do so 

 in 1913 is shown by the analysis which we have made of the samples. 

 The herring of the Dogger Bank region all belonged to the race of 

 trawl herring as above defined. But the P, R, S, T samples trawled 

 from off the Yorkshire coast were herring belonging to the east 

 coast race. The only exceptions were the samples marked N, 

 from near the same region, which, I was surprised to find, belonged 

 to the Dogger Bank race. The latter appears therefore to extend 

 further in a S.W. direction than has been stated, or does so in some 

 seasons, and trawl fishermen found at the time in this region shoals 

 which exhibited the tendency of the Dogger Bank race to remain 

 at the bottom. 



