FISHES AS FOOD 



263 



adult fishes, but also destruction of great numbers of immature 

 individuals, trawling cannot but tend to deplete the natural 

 supply. It is to be hoped that our knowledge will ultimately 

 be sufficiently extensive and accurate to grapple with the ques- 

 tion as to how best to regulate this kind of fishing, with a view 

 to maintaining the more important species in sufficient numbers. 

 At present our ignorance on many points is considerable, not to 

 say profound, and there is no lack of exaggeration on a slender 

 basis of fact. 



The Herring Family (Clupeid,^). — The members of this 

 family are widely 

 distributed in the 

 coastal waters of 

 both tropical and 

 temperate seas, but 

 are not found in 

 the deeper parts of 

 the ocean. From 

 the economic stand- 

 point they are the 

 most valuable of all 

 food-fishes, which is 

 partly due to the 

 fact that they live in 

 large surface - feed 

 ing shoals. The 

 chief method of capture is by means of "drift-nets". The most 

 important British fishes belonging to the family are Herring, 

 Sprat, Pilchard, and Anchovy. 



The Herring {Clupea harengiis, fig. 11 92). — Of all European 

 marine fishes this contributes most largely to the human food- 

 supply, especially when converted by curing methods into the 

 familiar "red herring", "kipper", and "bloater". It was long 

 supposed that herrings migrated periodically from northern waters 

 to the south, on both sides of the North Atlantic, but their move- 

 ments are now believed to be of much more local character. It 

 may, in fact, be stated that the direction of these movements is 

 alternately towards and from the land, the former being under- 

 taken for the purpose of spawning in shallow water, where the 

 heavy, sticky eggs sink to the bottom and adhere to various 



Fig. 1191. — Trawl-Net attached to Fishing-Boat 



