67 
anywhere from the Shetlands to Bergen Bank, and from North 
Shields to the Naze. In the southern part of the North Sea the 
spent herrings give the spring fishery from Yarmouth and Lowestoft. 
Early in May young summer fish are caught in the bait catches, 
and as the month advances the number of drifter liners gradually 
decreases, and herrings are sought nearer the chief fishing ports. 
Data have been given* which point to the young herrings moving 
shoreward from deeper water. On the Northumberland coast 
shoals of young developing fish may yield in some years the chief 
part of the catches as early as the middle of May, but as a rule it 
is not until the beginning of July that the huge shoals of young fish 
appear off the coast. During May and June the catches contain 
large numbers of recovering spents, and these, together with the 
May, June and early July shoals fished off the north-west of Ireland, 
west of Barra, west of the Shetlands and Orkneys, and the mid- 
summer fishery from Yarmouth and Lowestoft paint to the spring 
spawners shoaling when recovering from spawning. Few samples 
from these peculiar May, June and early July shoals have been 
examined, but the data given on page 30 for the north-west of 
Treland, west of the Shetlands, as well as the sample from Yarmouth 
in June, 1921, indicate that the recovering spents frequent summer 
fishing grounds until the early part of July. During this time, 
it appears from the Yarmouth samples that the herrings gradually 
improve in quality, the gonads recovering and a store of fat accumu- 
lating in the body cavity. 
After the beginning of July our herring fishery of the east 
coast depends entirely upon the shoals of young developing fish, 
and all trace of recovered spents is lost except for small numbers 
found in the samples. In August the grounds are invaded by 
shoals of larger and older herrings, and these, together with those 
of the young herrings sufficiently developed, form the autumn 
spawning shoals. The spent fish quickly disperse, leaving on the 
grounds small shoals of young herrings which have taken no part 
in the spawning. ‘These in their turn, by about the middle of 
September, disappear; they are unable to yield a fishery pro- 
ductive enough to keep the fishing vessels in the district. From 
the inspection of many herrings in the curing houses of North 

* Report, New Series VIII., page 28. 
