14 
AGE AND Maturity, Tasues I. anp II.—In determining - 
age the last winter ring was taken as being inside the edge of the 
scale for all samples of 1921, and after 31st December the edge 
of the scale and last winter were taken as coinciding until new 
growth appeared. 
The season commenced at North Shields as usual at the 
beginning of May with catches consisting chiefly of recovering 
spents from spring spawning shoals. The catches differed 
little from those generally made at this time, but were lower 
than in previous years, averaging for the first two weeks of 
the months between four and five crans per vessel. As the 
month advanced the catches became lower, and a gradual decrease 
continued until the second week in June when vessels averaged 
less than a cran per voyage. The samples at the herring ring 
showed quite clearly that the usual movement to the grounds 
off the Northumberland coast of young immature herrings, the 
beginning of the summer feeding shoals of developing herrings, 
had not taken place in the latter part of May. Small numbers 
of summer fish were seen, but these were not in sufficient quantities 
to influence the size of the catches, and were not greater than 
have been observed in some years, e.g., 1914, in catches made 
100 miles from the port towards the end of April and in early 
May. On the 15th and 16th of June catches averaged about 
three crans, but dropped the following day, and it was not until 
25th June that an average of little over six crans, the highest 
for the month, was obtained. Although the 25th of June showed 
a decided improvement in the fishery, the fish being more uniform 
in size and quality, and the samples for sale containing more fish 
with three winter rings than had been noticed previously, there 
were present comparatively large numbers of older fish which 
were recovering spents from spring spawning shoals. During 
the remainder of the month and early part of July, the catches 
varied from day to day from an average as low as a eran and a 
half to about seven crans. The number of fish with three winter 
rings became more numerous, and in the week ending 16th July 
they comprised the greater part of the samples. In this week 
the fishery was better than at any previous week of the season, 
and the 14th, with an average of only 12°4 crans per vessel, gave 
the highest average daily landing from the Northumberland shoals 
