152 



NATURE 



[Dec. 24, 1874 



they will attain their full dimensions within a year. It is 

 known of herring, by means of personal observation, that 

 from the time the roe or milt begins to develop itself, that 

 is, when they become inaties, no very long time elapses 

 till they are ready to spawn : ten weeks has been esti- 

 mated as about the time the herring takes to grow from 

 a "matie," or fat fish, to a spawning herring. 



The most contradictory accounts of the time at which 

 herrings spawn have been published by various inquirers. 

 Much of this confusion results, no doubt, from the fact 

 that the herring is somewhere engaged in fulfilling this 

 function of its life during nearly every month of the year. 

 There are, it is thought, distinct races of this fish con- 

 stantly coming to maturity and spawning at suitable times 

 with the instinct of keeping up the breed. Thus, at Wick, 

 on the Caithness coast, where there is still a great fishery 

 carried on, although it is evidently now on the wane, 

 herrings came to maturity and were ready to spawn in 

 July. At one time large numbers of these (July) herrings 

 were caught ; indeed, some economists say too many 

 were caught, and that in consequence the reproductive 

 strength of the shoal was so impaired, or its economy so 

 deranged, that it became exhausted. At any rate, few 

 herrings are now taken in July at Wick. The great August 

 shoal is being also over-fished, and symptoms are not 

 wanting in the violent fluctuations which occur in the 

 " takes," that it too will in time become unproductive. 

 Herrings are found in the Firth of Forth ready to shed their 

 spawn in the months of December, January, and February, 

 and during these months young herrings and sprats 

 (Clupca spraitiis), are found mi.\ed in the shoals wliich are 

 fished at that period of the year. The question of where 

 these schools of young fish go to whilst they are growing 

 naturally presents itself. But who can answer it ? The 

 theory of the migration of the herring fronr and to the seas 

 within the arctic circle has been long exploded, it having 

 been established, it was thought, beyond cavil, that it is 

 a native of our own seas : at all events, that it comes close 

 to certain parts of the British sea-coasts to deposit its 

 spawn. It is at that period of its life that we become 

 familiar with the herring, and that is the time at 

 which it can be most economically captured. Herrings 

 are seen at that period of their lives in prodigious num- 

 bers ; in fact, they lie in tiers on a favourite spawning 

 ground, covering several square miles of sea-bottom. If 

 all the parks of London were united together into one 

 great space of ground, it would not nearly represent the 

 width and length of a shoal of herrings engaged in 

 spawning ! 



It has been asserted that herrings aggregate and segre- 

 gate, but proof of this fact in their natural history is 

 lacking. Almost immediately after the spawn has ripened 

 into hfe, the tiny herrings are seen crowding together on 

 the most shallow places of the coast, where they are safe 

 from the attacks of larger fish, which would assuredly 

 prey upon them if they frequented the deeper water. 

 Now, it these fish separate, when do they do so 1 because, 

 if they come to maturity, as is said, within a year, they 

 have little time to live apart. If they go out to sea, how 

 far do they go ? It is a tact that at the time they are 

 caught they are at first taken at a considerable distance 

 from land. The writer has been out as far as twenty-five 

 miles from the shore without finding a trace of the shoal; 

 but within ten days or so the fish were found within a 

 radius of ten miles of the port from which he had sailed 

 in search of them, and they gradually came nearer and 

 nearer, being often caught within two miles of the land. 

 Although the fish of particular localities have such dis- 

 tinctive marks upon them as to render it easy to dis- 

 tinguish them, certain persons have again mooted the 

 idea of the herring being a migratory animal, and that a 

 great fish-shoal travels from the north to the south. A 

 writer in a recent number of the Scotsman newspaper 

 speaks of a vast shoal of herrings having arrived at 



Wick, then of its passing Fraserburgh and Peterhead ; 

 next, of its being found at Dunbar and Eyemouth ; then 

 on the coast of Northumberland; and finally, he tells us, 

 it will be found at Yarmouth, on the coast of Norfolk! 

 What else is this but a revival of a portion of the old 

 myth .' The shoal must be constantly finding out new 

 places to visit, and must also be deserting places where it 

 used to call ; it must also tell off brigades to spawn at 

 different localities ; otherwise, all that we have learned 

 about the natural history of the herring during the last 

 few years is imaginary. Any novice, almost, could dis- 

 tinguish a herring taken from Loch Fyne, when placed side 

 by side with a herring caught off the bay of Wick. 

 Fraserburgh, one of the places cited by the writer in the 

 Scotsman, has only risen to importance as a herring port 

 within the last ten years ; close upon seven hundred boats 

 were this year engaged in the fishery, whilst in 1864 there 

 was not much above a fourth of that number. At Fraser- 

 burgh, and two or three little fishing stations which adjoin 

 it, I S 1,000 crans of herrings were captured this year, 

 and these fish would be of the value of about 300,000?. 

 The capture by the boats fishing from Peterhead — also on 

 the Aberdeenshire coast— this season would not be of less 

 value than a quarter of a million pounds sterling. But 

 whilst these Aberdeenshire ports are rising into notice 

 as great centres of the herring fishery, other ports are 

 declining. Wick, which used to be the capital of herring 

 fishery enterprise, is now on the decline as a curing 

 station. Why ? For the simple reason, it may be pre- 

 sumed, that the owners of boats do not find it profit- 

 able to fish at that port. At one time as many as 1,200 

 boats used to fish for the Wick curers, but the number 

 at work this year was five hundred less ! Such a falling 

 oft" is very striking, and goes a long way to prove that it is 

 possible to " over-fish '' the herring, or at least so to de- 

 range the economy of the shoals as to render them in time 

 unproductive. It is only reasonable to argue that with 

 the largely augmented drifts of nets increased quantities 

 of herring ought to be captured, but it is being annually 

 demonstrated that such is not the case, and that to keep 

 up present supplies and provide for the supply demanded 

 by an exigent and increasing population, more boats and 

 still more extensive drifts of nets are required. 



Even very young fishermen have seen the rise and 

 decline of important seats of the herring fishery, appa- 

 rently from the over-fishing or derangement of the shoals. 

 It will be instructive to note what occurs in future to the 

 Wick fishery, because, only a few years ago, it was the 

 greatest hernng-curing station in the world, whilst next 

 year there is every probability of its being only a fourth- 

 rate fishing port. The fishermen will naturally go where 

 they can take their prey with the least possible trouble, 

 and where the fishery is more regular than it has been 

 during late years at Wick, where most of the fish have 

 been taken by a few of the more fortunate fishermen, 

 and many of the boats had to return morning after 

 morning "clean." The boats fishing at Fraserburgh 

 this year took each an average of 220 crans of herrings, 

 and all of them were tolerably well fished ; whilst the 

 Wick boats only averaged nineiy-four crans, the fishing 

 being even more partial than usual. The further deve- 

 lopment of the fishery at Fraserburgh, Aberdeen, and 

 Peterhead, which extends over a space of about forty 

 miles, will be anxiously watched. The shoal or shoals 

 which are yielding such wealth to the fishermen of these 

 ports must be prodigious in size and wonderfully pro- 

 ductive ; let us take note how long they last, and keep a 

 correct tale of what they yield. The run upon them for 

 the next two or three years will only be limited by the 

 accommodation which the harbours can give to the boats 

 and the ground which can be allotted to the curers. The 

 movements of the herring become yearly more interest- 

 ing, and we cannot be too well informed in regard to 

 them. 



