FISHERY PROBLEMS 185 



pathological condition. "The activity of the herring 

 family," says M. Mader, " is considerably diminished : it 

 may be a negative quantity, in spite of extremely satis- 

 factory conditions ; moreover, the aspect of the muscular 

 masses is not precisely the same as when the spawning is 

 completed ; they seem to be more fragmentary. The 

 circulation is concentrated upon the sexual glands, to the 

 detriment of the other organs, which appear pale and 

 degenerate." Whiting are fatigued ; their flesh is soft and 

 the flavour unpleasant. Mackerel are thin and exhausted. 

 Herring are also thinner, and solitary, and go in 

 search of food. Their facial aspect is so changed at this 

 period that for a long time they were described as " her- 

 ring with a black-pointed snout," a special race, which 

 was caught in February between Havre and Honfleur. 

 As a matter of fact, these herring are simply thinner than 

 the rest. 



All these facts go to show the importance, among 

 fish, of the crisis of sexual maturity ; among the adults 

 as they spawn, the larvae as they develop, grow, and 

 often pass through metamorphoses, like the ammoccetes, 

 which become transformed into the small lampern or 

 sand-piper, the leptocephali, which become conger, 1 and 

 the soles, plaice, and dabs, which become flattened from 

 right to left ; and of the genital crisis among fry, when 

 the male or female glands begin to appear. 



Unstable equilibrium : a condition of crisis : Jet us 

 repeat these two terms, which characterise the physical 

 nature of the fishing-grounds. To the biological crisis 

 is added the littoral oceanic crisis ; and fishing-grounds 

 are regions in unstable equilibrium^ when there is an 



1 Giinther described the leptocephali as the larvas of various 

 fishes which had suffered arii arrested development and never 

 reached maturity. [TRANS.] 



