20 
consisted chiefly of full fish, and that of March of spawning fish 
and spents. In the January sample there were five herrings 
between stages II. and III., and since their age varied from six 
to eleven years they were probably recovered spents from autumn 
spawning shoals. 
The June sample from Downings is the first from the north- 
west coast examined at this time of the year. Whilst fish of all 
ages were represented the predominant year-class was that with 
three winter rings. Mr. Farran classified the gonads as follows :— 
Recovering spents ... ae SOF coo el 
Spents, recovery not so great as above ... 13 
Immature Bue oe he EE HAE eel 
Quarter mature — matties ... sie Bes trgear| lt: 
Of the 26 immature and mattie herrings, 21 were fish with 
three winter rings, two had two winter rings, and three had four 
winter rings. 
The sample from Galway Bay in December consisted of spent 
fish, and the chief year-class was that with three winter rings. 
The summer fishery was a failure. At North Shields there 
was a scarcity of fish with three winter rings on the scales, and 
the number of recovering spents from spring spawning shoals 
formed an abnormally high portion of the catches until the middle 
of July. 
As in 1920 many reasons were given for the failure of the 
summer fishery at North Shields and other ports. In 1920 the 
presence of ** jelly fish was supposed by fishermen to have much 
to do with the poor fishery. In 1921 sharks and dogfish were 
held to have destroyed the herrings. The reason for the failure 
was that the herrings were not present off the coast, and since 
it has been shown in previous reports that the summer fishery 
contains from 50 to 70 per cent. of fish with three winter rings 
on the scales, the scarcity of herrings was due to the year-class 
1918—fish hatched in the autumn of 1917 and the spring of 1918 
—being very poor in numbers in the summer shoals. 
Hydrographic conditions have been held to account for the 
failure of the fishery by causing the herrings to swim at depths 
not reached by the drift nets. The summer fishery was a general 
