io6 



NA TURE 



[_Nov. 29, lb 8 3 



lines of further investigations than the results already 

 obtained. 



During our stay in the Moray Firth our attention was 

 constantly directed to the change in the position of the 

 spawning grounds. It was stated that, some fifteen years 

 ago, immense shoals of herring visited the inshore ground, 

 in order to deposit their spawn in comparatively shallow 

 water, but that now they had deserted their former 

 favourite haunts for banks from thirty to eighty miles at 

 sea, lying at a depth of from thirty to fifty fathoms. This 

 has caused great distress, as from the absence of suitable 

 harbour accommodation, the large boats fish from distant 

 stations, and the inshore "takes" of the smaller boats 

 (all of which can be beached) is not now sufficient to give 

 employment to the local population in curing. The 

 Report of the Commissioners for British Fisheries for 

 1862 gives the toial take at the ports especially devoted 

 to the inshore fishing, viz. Lybster, Helmsdale, Cromarty, 

 Findhorn, and Buckie, as 158,314 barrels, whereas in 

 1882 it was only 31,574. On the other hand, at Fraser- 

 burgh, a great centre for the deep-sea fishing, the take 

 h:is increased from 77,124 in 1S62 to 233,297 in 1882. 

 Though these figures, and our experience during the 

 autumn, show conclusively that herring are no longer so 

 abundant on the inshore grounds, they do not prove that 

 the shoals are every year spawning farther and farther 

 from our shores, as is often alleged, or that, if we continue 

 to disturb the offshore spawning grounds as we have the 

 inshore, they will disappear from our waters altogether. 

 Some who have had considerable e.vperience believe that 

 spawn deposited in forty fathoms water never develop?, 

 and that even if it did the herring fry would perish for 

 want of the proper nourishment. 



The disappearance of herring from inshore grounds is 

 accounted for in many ways by the fishermen. Some 

 believe that the offshore fishermen prevent the shoals 

 from reaching the coast by the many miles of nets which 

 they throw across their path ; others that the inshore 

 fishing has been destroyed by the winter sprat fishing, 

 most of the so-called sprats being young herring. The 

 former explanation seems to imply that the inshore and 

 deep-sea herring are identical, whereas the latter seems 

 to indicate that they are different. The Report of the 

 German Commission bears that there is a difference 

 betvveen the autumn and spring herring of the Baltic ; 

 there may also be a difference between the deep-sea and 

 inshore forms. When this problem is solved we may be 

 able to account for the disappearance of the inshore 

 herring. Should some herring have been so modified 

 that they prefer to spawn on rocky ground in shallow 

 brackish water rather than on deep gravel banks in the 

 open sea, or if herring return to their birthplace to 

 spawn, it will be possible by skilful management to 

 restore the inshore fishing to its original productiveness. 



Having examined the inshore spawning grounds, we 

 next proceeded to investigate the banks where the deep- 

 sea herring were believed to spawn. At the outset we 

 felt there was no evidence that these banks had not 

 always been used by herrings as spawning beds. We do 

 know, however, that as the herring boats increased in size 

 enterprising fishermen were enabled to proceed farther 

 to sea, and as a reward they discovered great shoals of 

 herring, the comparative density and condition of which 

 fomi an interesting subject for immediate investigation. 

 It may have been a mere coincidence that this took place 

 about the same time as the inshore shoals began to 

 diminish. We have no reason for supposing that what 

 we now speak of as deep-sea herring have not been as 

 abundant for centuries as they are at the present day. 

 Man, it seems to your Committee, is not likely much to 

 reduce the number of herring some fifty miles at sea, 

 however much influence he may exert over those which 

 frequent our territorial waters. The time at our disposal 

 did not permit our making a thorough examination of the 



offshore grounds ; in fact, we were only able to begin this 

 part of the work. But there can be no doubt, from the 

 observations already made, that spawn is deposited on 

 these banks, and that the slight difterence of the bottom 

 temperature (some 3"" C.) would only slightly retard deve- 

 lopment. Further, the fry once hatched would find an 

 ample supply of food in the rich surface fauna. 



The Committee feel that, in order to obtain satisfactory 

 information as to the food of the herring, it will be neces- 

 sary to make continuous observations for a year or more 

 at all the principal fishing st.itions around our coast. 

 This could easily be undertaken through the fi^hery 

 officers. 



As to the so-called migrations of the herring, the Com- 

 mittee has not had sufficient time to make a careful inves- 

 tigation, but from the observations made it seems evident 

 that, as the spawning season approaches, the isolated 

 herring and the small groups congregate together, and 

 thus form dense s oals. The shoals once formed in- 

 stinctively select banks free from mud and shifting sand, 

 and provided with numerous rocks and stones, or with an 

 abundant coating of seaweeds. Having found a con- 

 venient bank covered with water at a suitable tem- 

 perature, and with the requisite specific gravity, they 

 hover over it, if left undisturbed, apparently not paying 

 much heed to the claims of hunger, but feeding on what- 

 ever Crustacea, sand lels, or other small forms come in 

 their way. The spawn once ripe, they congregate at the 

 bottom, the females depositing the ro; on the rocks and 

 seaweeds, to which it at once firmly adheres, and the 

 males fertilising it with their milt. How long a period is 

 required for the whole of the roe to escape has yet to be 

 ascertained. Soon after the " shotten " condition is 

 reached, both males and females begin to leave the 

 spawning ground, — hunger being probably the chief 

 factor in the dispersal of the spent fish, — and this goes on 

 until the whole shoal is dispersed, the hungry disbanded 

 members, either singly or in small companies, hurrying 

 hither and thither in anxious search of food. When they 

 have partly recovered from their exhausted condition they 

 may collect into larger groups ; but their further move- 

 ments are probably largely mfluenced by the shoals oi 

 Crustacea on which they chiefly subsist. In all proba- 

 bility their principal feeding ground lies somewhere 

 between the Shetland Islands and the Scandinavian 

 coast. This region is probably the great reserve feeding 

 ground for the fish of the North Sea, and it should at an 

 early date be carefully explored. 



The examination of the three firths — Dornoch, Cro- 

 marty, and Inverness — has shown that they are all 

 extremely well adapted for producing mussels. Part of 

 the Dornoch Firth already is a considerable source of 

 wealth to the authorities of Tain, but even there the culti- 

 vation might be greatly extended. The demand for 

 mussels is great, and the want of them, when herring are 

 unattainable, is often a great hardship to the fishermen ; 

 with a little care, the three firths mentioned would supply 

 bait for the whole east coast of Scotland. 



The Committee recommend the Board to remit the 

 consideration of the Scottish mussel and oyster banks to 

 a special committee, with the view of taking steps to have 

 their complete control transferred from the Board of 

 Trade to the Scottish Fishery Board. 



As the work of the Committee proceeded they have 

 been impressed with the fact that almost everything has 

 still to be learned regarding the habits and life-history of 

 all our food fishes, and they concur in the truth of the 

 following extract from a recent report of the International 

 Fisheries Exhibition : — " It is a very striking fact that 

 the one point on which all speakers at the conferences 

 held during the past summer at the Exhibition were 

 agreed was this — that our knowledge of the habits, time 

 and place of spawning, food peculiarities of the young, 

 migrations, &c., of the fish which form the basis of British 



