056 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



iucomprehensible why the yield of the fisheries should decrease iu pro- 

 portion as they commeuced later in spring. But if we start from the 

 modern theory regarding the mode of life and the migrations of the 

 spring-herring, I think it may all be explained in a very natural manner. 

 Since, according to this theory, the spring herrings, outside of the fish- 

 ing season, are just as much as the summer-herrings dependent on the 

 occurrence of the small crustaceans, and as this is again dependent on 

 various meteorological conditions, especially the direction of the cur- 

 rents in the outer sea, it may easily be imagined that the great mass of 

 the spring-herrings at that season of the year when they gather to go to 

 their usual spawning-places are not always at the same distance from 

 these places, but one year near and another year far. In the former 

 case they will be able to reach their spawning-places in a comparatively 

 short time, and the fisheries will therefore commence early iu the sea- 

 son. In the latter case it will take them longer to reach the spawning- 

 places, and the fisheries will commence later. 



As it must also be supposed that roe and milt develop at a certain 

 time of the year, and as it is certain that the herrings, like all other fish, 

 commence to approach the spawning-places long before roe and milt are 

 fully matured, and do not leave the coast until they have spawned, it 

 follows that, in the first case, the spring-herrings will be able to stay 

 longer near the coast, going farther up the bays and sounds, and that 

 consequently the fisheries will last longer and yield a more certain result; 

 while, in the other case, they can only stay near the shore a compara- 

 tively short time, so that it may often happen, as was the case last year, 

 that the spawning process commences immediately after the arrival of 

 the herrings near the coast, and that the chief mass from this cause re- 

 mains at the outermost spawning-places, while only small schools are, 

 by pollack and other fish, chased near the coast. It will thus appear 

 that in this case the fisheries will be short and uncertain, although the 

 same number of herrings as formerly have come near the coast. The 

 quality of the herring will also, to a great extent, depend on the same 

 conditions, as it is well known that the herring is better the firmer (less 

 matured) the roe and milt are, and leaner the more the roe and milt be- 

 gin to loosen. The excellent quality of the Nordland great herrings is 

 chiefly owing to the circumstance that they are caught long before roe 

 and milt are fully matured, as they approach the coast late in autumn, 

 while in all probability they spawn about the same time as the spring- 

 herring. From this early coming in of the great herring it may be con- 

 cluded that they must live nearer the coast than the sprhig-herring; and 

 occasional observations made by me have proved that the sea near this 

 coast is by far richer in herring-food than the sea near our southwest- 

 ern coast. 



We thus arrive at the result that the irregularities of the spring-her- 

 ring fisheries on otir western coast must be traced to meteorological 

 causes in the outer sea, and this not so much during the fishing season 



