52 COIKEECIAL FISEIERIES REVIEW . Vol. 13, No. 7 



AUGUST AND CONTINUING TO THE TIME OF DEPARTURE OF THE SCHOOLS FROM 

 ST. HELENA BAY SOMETIME IN NOVEMBER. THIS RECESSION IS MANIFESTED 

 INTER ALIA BY FLABBINESS OF THE FLESH, ADHESIVENESS OF SCALES, SO- 

 CALLED "STOMACH-BURN," AND PAUCITY OF OIL' CONTENT. WHETHER THESE 

 CHARACTERISTICS ARE DIRECTLY RELATED SPECIFICALLY TO BIOLOGICAL FAC- 

 TORS, SUCH AS DEVELOPMENT TOWARDS SEXUAL ACTIVITY, A SELECTIVE OR 

 GENERAL SEASONAL DIET, PHYSICO-CHEMICAL FACTORS SUCH AS WATER TEM- 

 PERATURES, OR A COMBINATION OF SOME OR ALL THESE AND OTHER ECOLOGICAL 

 FACTORS, REMAINS TO BE ESTABLISHED. THE PROGRESSIVELY LOWER OIL 

 YIELD AND THE PROGRESSIVE DETERIORATION IN THE QUALITY OF THE CANNED 

 PACK DURING THIS PERIOD OF RECESSION IN THE FISh's CONDITION ARE DE- 

 MONSTRABLE FACTS. AN ANALYSIS OF ALL DATA TO DATE REVEALS A PROGRES- 

 SIVE RECESSION IN QUALITY OF THE CANNED PACK OF PILCHARDS FROM AU- 

 GUST ONWARDS. 



Recoinmendatlons ; The report recoramends that the fishing season be closed dur- 

 ing September and October 1951, under the provision of Proclamation No, I95 (de- 

 fining the area closed to fishing) dated August 4, 1949» a^d ^^^ restrictions in 

 new plant construction contained in Proclamation No. 260 dated October 27, 1950, 

 be enforced for at least twelve months from the date of promulgation. For the 

 moment at least, the pilchard fishing industry is inclined to support the restric- 

 tive measures recommended by tbe Division of Fisheries,, 



■A 



U. S. S. R. 



RUSSIAN VESSELS FISHING HERRING OFF NORTHERN gOHWA Y: Ten Russian fishing ves- 

 sels and a mothership were currently operating off Andjiya in Northern Nonvay, ac- 

 cording to a report in the June 6 issue of Fiskaren , a Norwegian trade periodical. 

 They were said to be taking good catches of large or winter herring. A fisnerman 

 from Andenes found about a hundred pounds of thin large herring in a small strip 

 of a Russian gill net attached to a float lAtoich had torn itself loose.. 



Ttie Norwegians are aware that spawning occurs both on E^st Bank and Traena 

 Bank, according to a Norwegian scientist, Finn Devoid. In 1938 a Russian expedi- 

 tion found herring from Lofoten to Stjern(!iya. The Russians believed the herring 

 were a separate stock and called them IVJurmansk herring. Norwegian investigations 

 also have found spawning herring there as well as herring larvae over the whole 

 area in May. 



Although the presence of these rerrlng is not new, it is too early to say 

 whether they have anything to do with the Norwegian large or winter herring. It is 

 also an open Liuestion whether they are present in such volume that a fishery can be 

 profitable. There have been many reports from Norwegian vessels passing large 

 schools of herring on the way to Norway from the Arctic Ocean and Jan Mayen. But 

 the herring observed were dispersed and the period was during the lightest part of 

 the year. A solution to the problem is one of the things to be sought by the con- 

 tinued scientific investigations of the Norwegians. 



A later report in the same periodical states that the mothership Angara is 

 a Swedish-Dullt refrigerator ship of 1,100 metric tons and that the fishing vessels 

 are the first ten of 92 Russian trawlers now being built in East Germany, 



