herring cnrers and fishermen does not point to full or spawning 

 fish being present in any great numbers in these waters in spring. 



It has been pointed out that there were present in the waters 

 off Yarmouth a number of fish which could not become spawners 

 during the time the shoals there abound, and the possibility of 

 these fish joining a shoal migrating to the Firth of Forth is worthy 

 of consideration. There is not sufficient data to hand to allow 

 of any comparison between these fish and the Firth of Forth shoals. 



General. — From the whole of the waters from Avhich the 

 samples under consideration have been obtained, the most northerly 

 and westerly shoals of herrings are the shoals of spring spawners 

 to the north of the Shetlands and in the vicinity of the Flannan 

 Islands. To the southward and eastward of these shoals are found 

 the summer feeding shoals of the east of the Shetlands to Fair 

 Isle, and those round the northern portion of Lewis. The Shetland 

 summer shoals have been sho^\ii to contain a number of fish with 

 three winter rings, and from the vicinities of Fair Isle, Auskerry 

 and Copinshay 3'Oung fish are more numerous, if, as is thought, 

 trade descriptions can be taken to indicate roughly the age of the 

 fish. The summer shoals about the Butt of Lewis are mostly 

 mattie herrings, which, from the data now available, are considered 

 to be chiefly fish with three winter rings. These summer feeding 

 grounds, later in the season, become autumn spawning grounds 

 for older herrings and those of the young fish sufficiently developed 

 to take part in the spawning. Other spring spa^vning shoals 

 may be found to the south and east, off the Orknej^s, the Butt of 

 Lewis and the north coast of Sutherland, but again to the south- 

 ward and eastward are foimd young fish in summer feeding shoals. 

 From the Pentland Firth southward are found spawning grounds 

 with summer feeding shoals to the south of them, and this persists 

 along the coast until the southern part of the North Sea is reached, 

 which, on account of its narrow waters and currents, cannot be 

 expected to give a summer feeding shoal south of the spaAAming 

 shoals. 



The presence and position of these summer feeding shoals 

 of young fish, the predominant year class of which has three winter 

 rings on the scales, compels a consideration of our herring shoals 

 from the stand]3oint of denatation,* and the continued existence 



♦ Professor Meek, Migrations of Fish^ 1916. 



