HERRING FISHERY OF CANADA 39 



years, it is evident that older herring must be much reduced in number, 

 in comparison with the younger individuals. From the study of the 

 growth of the Newfoundland herring it is evident that the three-, four-, 

 five- and six-year-old herring, which to a larger or smaller degree may 

 belong to the immature ' fat ' schools, must possess the esteemed 

 qualities of the Norwegian ' fat ' herring which are caught by hun- 

 dreds of thousands of barrels. This opens up a vast field for interest- 

 ing scientific and practical investigation to solve such questions. 



It is above all things necessary to discover the schools and determine 

 the migrations of the esteemed ' fat ' herring and, in practice, to adopt 

 better methods of capture and of handling, curing, and packing, so 

 that our Canadian herring industry may rise to the front rank in the 

 herring fisheries of the world. 



Scientific Herring Researches Undertaken 



In order to solve the problem of bringing Canadian 

 Dr'n^ort *° herring up to the standard of the Scottish or Norse 



product, it was necessary that certain preliminary 

 questions should be decided, and Dr. Johan Hjort, Director of Nor- 

 wegian Fisheries, was invited by the Biological Board to come from 

 Norway to conduct investigations on lines similar to those which he 

 had followed with success in Norwegian seas. Hon. J. D. Hazen, 

 Minister of the Naval Service, and Mr. Desbarats, the Deputy Min- 

 ister, took great personal interest in this proposal, and strongly approved 

 of the investigations which were conducted in the autumn of 1914 and 

 during the summer of 1915. 



Dr. Hjort decided that the following questions 

 Problems required investigation: 



(1) Is there only one race or type of herring on the 

 Atlantic coast of Canada, or do several races exist in these waters? 



(2) Is the rate of growth uniform, or can different types of 

 growth, varying according to environment, be distinguished? 



(3) Is the annual renewal of the stock of herring constant, or are 

 there great fluctuations as in Europe, that is to say, are there fluctua- 

 tions in the number of individuals belonging to different year-classes ? 



European fishermen have observed that herring are dissimilar in 



many important features, and differ in size and quality at different 



times in different parts of the sea. The conclusion followed that, in 



the North sea, for example, a great number of various local races of 



3 



