PISCES 115 



fishermen. There has been much uncertainty as to the habits of the 

 true or sea-herring. It is supposed that there are numerous races, 

 each of which swims in a separate school, sometimes in such enormous 

 numbers that they form a closely crowded mass of from 5 to 20 square 

 miles. These schools migrate from the deep sea toward the coasts 

 where they spawn. The river-herrings or alewives are the ones that 

 were mentioned above as being caught in large numbers as they ascend 

 the rivers of the Atlantic coast to spawn, they are largely smoked and 

 salted. 



The shad, one of the finest of all food fishes, belongs to the herring 

 family, and, like it, is caught in the rivers of the Atlantic seaboard, 

 which it ascends for the purpose of spawning. Being a large, finely 

 flavored fish it is usually eaten fresh, while the common herring is largely 

 salted or smoked. The shad was successfully introduced into Cali- 

 fornia, years ago, and is now abundant from Monterey Bay to Alaska. 



In spite of the fact that it is very prolific, an average female pro- 

 ducing from 30,000 to 100,000 eggs, while many individuals produce 

 several times that many, the shad has been largely reduced in numbers, 

 with a corresponding rise in price. But for the work of the United 

 States Bureau of Fisheries, to be discussed later, this delicious fish 

 would probably have been practically exterminated. In 1900 this 

 Bureau hatched and distributed 241,056,000 shad fry. 



Although, as noted above, shad produce eggs in enormous numbers, 

 they are deposited more or less at random in the fresh water of the 

 rivers, no nest is built and the percentage of loss of eggs is very high; 

 added to this is the destruction by other fish and by man (who always 

 catches them on the way to the breeding grounds), so that it is no 

 wonder the industry was threatened with extinction. 



After spawning, the adults begin to feed again, and move toward 

 the sea. The young shad remain in the rivers until about November 

 of the first season when they are about 3 inches long; they remain in 

 the sea for 3 or 4 years, till sexually mature, when the female may 

 weigh from 3 to 6 pounds or more. The shoreward migration of 

 shad depends upon the temperature of the water; it begins along the 

 southern coasts and gradually extends northward as far as the St. 

 Lawrence River. 



Another important member of the herring family is the sardine, 

 the tiny fish characteristic of the Mediterranean Sea and presumably 



