VALUE OF FISHERIES 6T 



the flowing hosts with nets each extending 

 2, 3, or 5 miles in length. Collectively the 

 British herring fleet, when fishing, uses 

 1000 miles of nets; these are arranged so 

 that the herring runs into the wall of the 

 nets, the mesh of which is large enough to 

 allow the head to penetrate but not the 

 body, thus the herring in its struggle is 

 fastened at the neck until the fishermen 

 haul them into the boat and shake 

 them off. In a single season 3,000,000,000 

 herrings are landed in the British Isles 

 alone. This quantity is only a tiny frac- 

 tion of the supply in the ocean, so that 

 if ever there was safety in numbers it 

 applies to the migrating herring. Nearly 

 all fish are its enemies ; in larval, post- 

 larval, immature and mature stages, it is 

 the food of other fish, and probably 

 not one in 10,000 lives to maturity ; yet 

 the adult fish are so inexhaustible in 

 quantity that no matter how much the 

 fishing is extended the quantity does not 

 diminish. Herrings themselves feed on 

 plankton, that wonderful material in which 

 the sea abounds, and this is perhaps the 

 chief reason for its migrating habit. Some 



