44 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



The herring of the Magdalen islands live in the southern portion 

 of the gulf of St. Lawrence, where the fresh water from the river 

 St. Lawrence lowers the salinity, where the temperature in summer is 

 high, in winter very low, and where the water is shallow over the 

 many 'banks.' 



The Norwegian and Newfoundland herring, which correspond so 

 much in their rate of growth, may also reach their maturity at about 

 the same age. If this be so, it must further be supposed that the 

 spawning schools off the Newfoundland coasts, in some years, must 

 consist of large numbers of smaller and younger, four-, five-, and 

 six-year-old fish, which to a great extent must go through the fisher- 

 men's nets and thus escape being caught. The Newfoundland herring, 

 secured during the investigation, consisted of samples from the spring 

 and autumn schools, all of which are large mature fish. 



Soring and '^^^ investigations in 1914, which were, on the whole. 



Fall Herring confirmed in 1915, showed that there is a marked dif- 

 m Canada ference between the spring spawners of the gulf of St. 



Lawrence, Northumberland strait, the Magdalen islands and the west 

 coast of Newfoundland, and the fall herring obtained in the open 

 Atlantic waters off Cape Breton and Nova Scotia. This difference 

 was well known to experienced men engaged in the Atlantic herring 

 fishery, as they caught spring spawners everywhere in the Gulf, and 

 fall spawners off the open Atlantic coast. The fishermen recognized 

 an imaginary line drawn in an easterly direction through a point on 

 the coast of Cape Breton, near the entrance to the Gulf. North of this 

 line all the herring are declared to be spring spawners, and south of 

 the line the oceanic types are fall spawners, but there are known to 

 exist also local spring spawning schools of coast herring. 



B^ofPundy '^^^ last-named occur in the bay of Fundy and 

 and West Nova around the coasts of western Nova Scotia. Gilpin, 

 Scotia Herring however, long ago, discovered spawning herring in May 

 as well as in September and October. Herring first appeared in 

 Digby basin about the last of March or the first of April, and spawned 

 a month later. By the 20th May they had left the Basin. On the 

 Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, Gilpin observed shore herring, about 

 eleven inches in length, early in March and spawning in September 

 and October. It is curious that this corresponds to conditions in the 

 North sea, where coast herring spawn in spring and oceanic herring 

 on the outer banks (e.g., the Dogger bank) in the autumn. It has 

 also been noted that the northern spring spawners have fewer keel 

 scales (averaging 12.5) than the southern fall spawners (averaging 



