19 



HERRING INVESTIGATIONS. 



Size, Age and Maturity. 



By B. STORROW. 



Herring fishing during 1915 was somewhat restricted, but 

 three samples have been examined. The samples were got from 

 North Shields trawlers, but the locality of their capture and the 

 age composition leave no doubt as to the shoal to which they 

 belong. As in previous j^ears ordinary commercial samples were 

 obtained. It is interesting to note that during 1915 the herring 

 caught on the trawled herring ground off the Yorkshire coast 

 were not sorted, as a rule, before being put on the market, the 

 small number of large fish making this process unnecessarj^ 

 Sometimes the smallest herrings in the catch were sold separately. 



The samples examined were as follows : — 



Size. — The length was measured, as in 1914, from the snout 

 to the end of the upper lobe of the tail, which was moved so that 

 its upper edge was parallel to the mid-luie of the body. The fish 

 have been grouped to the nearest centimetre, 20*6 to 21-5 cm. 

 being counted as 21 cm. 



The greater part of the sample of Northumberland coast 

 herring, sample 1, consisted of fish from 23 to 25 cm. long, and 

 the sample differed Uttle in this respect from those of the same 

 herrings examined in 1913 and 1914. 



The herrmgs from the Yorkshire coast trawled herring ground, 

 samples 2 and 3, were as in previous years larger than those from 

 the Northumberland coast, but were smaller than the fish got 

 from the same ground in other years, there being less than 14 per 



