14 



more spents are taken in the catches, the first appearing about 

 5th March. Catches from these grounds were very heavy this 

 j^ear, 80 to 140 crans being taken by vessels with 25 and 36 nets, 

 but the severe winter weather greatly hindered the fishing. 



The next shoals are expected in the vicinity of the Bergen 

 Bank, 60 to 100 miles east of Lerwick, or from the grounds between 

 Fitful Head, Foula and Scalloway, called by the fishermen the 

 Burra Half. This latter ground, Barra Half, gives a fishing similar 

 to that between Ronas Voe and Gloup Holm in the early summer 

 months. The Bergen Bank herrings are probably recovering 

 spents from the spring spa\Aiiers of the northern waters. The 

 first of these herrings this year, 1920, were caught by a Dutch 

 lugger, which had 100 barrels of large spents from two shots, and 

 came into Lerwick Harbour on 12th Ma}'. Off the Bamna Stacks 

 heavy shots of spent herring a,re occasionally taken in April, and 

 during the same month herrings are taken from a large area, chiefly 

 by drifter liners, sometimes from the Viking Bank or even as far 

 as 112 miles away in that direction from Lerwick. The herrings 

 from these northern and distant grounds are of large size, whether 

 they be full or spent. It is evident that after the period of spring 

 spawning the herrings are scattered over a considerable area in 

 these northern waters. To what extent the Shetland herrings 

 may mix with the recovering spents from the Norwegian shoals 

 of spring spawners is difficult to sa^j, but there appear to be great 

 possibilities for such a mixture to take place. 



Summer feeding shoals give rise to fishings along the east 

 coast, and these are joined in autumn b}^ spaAvning shoals, the 

 first spa\^Tiing herrings being caught generally east and south-east 

 of Bressay. The herrings from Fetlar to as far south as Fair Isle 

 are, during May and June, smaller and more mixed than the spring 

 shoals, and do not keep so well. They are evidently shoals con- 

 taining many young fish, and the youngest of them, or the shoals 

 where the young fish predominate, are in the vicinity of Fair Isle, 

 the herrings from these grounds being described as smaller and 

 tenderer than the Unst, Fetlar, Whalsay or Bressay caught fish. 



The waters to the west of the islands, between Ronas Voe 

 and Gloup Holm, yield an early summer fishing. Catches may 

 be taken as early as the end of April, but it is generally the middle 

 of May before the herrings are present in any great numbers, and 



