G54 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



those fiords wbicli run very far up iuto the country, it may happen that 

 schools remain all the year round and eveu longer; and rlie herrings 

 composing such schools will naturally assume a somewhat different 

 appearance from the common herring or gradually form themselves into 

 a special variety. But on the whole the occurrence of the summer her- 

 rings near our coast must be considered as entirely transient; in other 

 words, the summer-herring is not, as has formerly been believed, a sta- 

 tionary coast-flsh, but, like the older herring (the spring herring), it 

 comes from the open sea. 



The correctness of this view was also fully proved by the observations 

 •which I had made this year. Some time before the large schools of 

 herring came to Espevair, the mackerel -fishers at a distance of 6-8 ISTor- 

 ■wegian miles from the coast often caught in their nets a considerable 

 number of large and fat summer-herring, and schools of large and small 

 herrings were often observed from the mackerel-boats on their return 

 toward the coast. Soon after there was a sudden change in the weather, 

 and an unusually strong current set in toward the islands near Espevfer, 

 carrying with it enormous numbers of crustaceans which filled all the 

 neighboring bays and sounds. These were closely followed by the her- 

 rings, first the larger and then the smaller ones. As during winter the 

 number ot crustaceans near the coast is not so large, the migration of 

 the herrings toward the sea will be leii^s disturbed than during summer, 

 and there is no instance on record that spring-herrings have returned 

 to the coast after they had spawned. 



As soon as the herring has reached a certain distance from the coast 

 and is out in the open sea it will be less apt to be enticed toward the 

 coast by its food, as the currents farther out are generally much more 

 regular than near the coast. Those herrings which come to our coasts 

 in summer are, therefore, chiefly young herrings, whose migrations have 

 not yet extended very far, and very rarely old herrings which have 

 already impawned. I consider it quite probable, how^ever, that among 

 the large " merchants' herring" there are some which formerly as spring- 

 herring have spawned near our coast. 



To be brief, we can mark two phases in the migrations of the growing 

 herring: first, a successive distribution of the young from the places 

 where the}" have been hatched over a larger portion of the coast; then 

 a migration (often interrupted during summer) toward those parts of 

 the open sea where the old herring live. That this migration as well as 

 the distribution of the young along the coast chiefly goes on in a north- 

 erly direction is caused not merely by the temperature of the outer sea, 

 but also by the currents, and the decided northeasterly direction of the 

 current which may be observed, at any rate from Stat, will furnish a 

 very natural explanation of the fact that the summer-herring fisheries 

 are generally richest near Trondhjem, although it is well known that 

 the spring-herrings do not spawn anywhere near the outer coast of 

 Trondhjem. The fat herring caught near the coasts of Nordhind and 



