28 FISHES OF AUSTRALIA. 



shoals, which, at times, cover vast areas in our coastal waters, 

 both in the young and adult stages. The complete history 

 of the life and migrations of the Pilchard still waits to be 

 told, but notwithstanding the paucity of our knowledge in 

 regard to this and some other members of the Herring 

 family, we still know enough to enable us to reap a rich 

 harvest annually from them, if we were so inclined ; but, 

 instead of doing this, we sit down year after year, allow- 

 ing the shoals to come and go without any attempt being 

 made to utilise them. Here, indeed, are riches thrust upon 

 us, but we are apathetic and do not heed ; for we close our 

 eyes to the bountiful stores that Nature has laid before us 

 and sometimes complainingly ask, "Where are the fish?" 



Fig. 10. PILCHARD (Clupanodon neopilchardus ) . 



At the present time the enormous abundance in which the 

 Pilchards, for instance, occur, is very well-known amongst 

 the fishermen ; but they also know that if they were to bring 

 along, say, a hundred baskets to the Markets, there would 

 be little, or no, sale for them in their fresh state, and 

 that they would ultimately find their way to "the Tip." In 

 utilising shoals of fishes such as these, combined effort on 

 the part of the fisherman as producer and the purveyor 

 or manufacturer (using the latter term in its wider sense ) 

 is necessary, if the fishery is to become a success. The 

 Australian Pilchard is to all intents and purposes practi- 

 cally identical, as a food product, with the Sardine of com- 

 merce a fish, out of the capture and disposal of which, 

 many hundreds of thousands of pounds are gained annually. 

 In regard to their abundance, the same remarks may in a 

 great measure be applied to the Herring, the Sandy Sprat 

 and the Anchovy ; these fishes all occurring at one time or 



