96 THE SEA FISHERIES 



The best summary of our knowledge of the rate of growth of the 

 herring is contained in a paper by Fulton,^ published by the Scottish 

 Fishery Board. 



According to Fulton the herring grows very slowly, and the 

 investigators who supposed that it reached the mature condition in 

 a year or eighteen months are much mistaken. At the end of the 

 year in which it was hatched the spring herring rarely exceeds a 

 length of 2 in., and the great majority are much smaller ; at the 

 same period the autumn herring may be a little over J in., and is 

 rarely over if in. 



This difference between the spring and autumn herring persists 

 throughout. Growth in length, as with most fishes, is somewhat 

 more rapid in the early stages, diminishing with age, at first slowly 

 and on the occurrence of sexual maturity, with great and marked 

 rapidity. Herring, both male and female, appear to attain the 

 mature condition and to reproduce for the first time when the age 

 is five years. The elucidation of the question of the growth of the 

 herring has an important bearing on fishery problems. Compared 

 with demersal fish, the herring caught by drift nets has a great 

 advantage in the struggle for existence, since four generations of 

 undersized and immature herrings escape through the meshes. 

 In a trawl these immature fish would be captured. 



Neither the spawning grounds nor the spawning habits of the 

 herring are weU known. There are different theories as to the 

 intervals between the successive spawning-times of the herring. 

 Heincke* is of opinion that the spawn has never been found twice 

 in the same year on the same spawning ground, which would be 

 the case if the same herring spawned twice annually. Cunningham* 

 directly contradicts this, since he says that two spawnings have 

 been definitely observed in the same neighbourhood. Matthews* 

 also believes that the herring spawn twice in the same year. He 

 believes that the herring spawning off Ballantrae in February and 

 March, and those which spawn off Campbeltown in spring, and then 

 enter Loch Fyne in the summer as spent herring, become ripe there 

 and spawn for the second time from August to the end of October. 

 If this view be correct there would be no distinction between spring- 

 spawning and autumn-spawning races, at any rate, of this part of 

 the coast of Scotland. 



Another theory has been held as to the interval between suc- 



1 " On the growth and age of the herring," 24th Ann. Rept. Scots. Fish. Bd., 

 Part III, p. 293. 



2 Naturgeschichte des Herings. Berlin, 1898, Text p. 47. 

 ' Marketable Marine Fishes. London, 1896, p. 151. 



* Fourth Ann. Rept. Scots. Fish. Bd., p. 61. 



