FISH-NOTES FROM GREAT YARMOUTH. 15 



for any coveted prize. The smaller Gulls that did not go 

 inland or to some more tempting localities haunted the sewer 

 outlets by the quaysides, glad to snatch at floating pieces of 

 bread, or the skins and fragments of Herrings that drifted in the 

 foul waters. The gutting yards were invaded, when the work-folk 

 had gone to meals, for any pieces that might be found lying 

 around. The nets spread on the south denes (sand-dunes) to 

 dry were diligently examined by the hungry birds in their search 

 for fragments and heads still entangled in the meshes. Later 

 on the hungry birds became so emboldened as to resort to the 

 fish wharf, on the roof of which they swarmed, to the entertain- 

 ment of the wharf- folk, who threw on the slates broken Herrings 

 and Whitings: for these the birds scrambled pugnaciously, but a 

 fish once seized upon was seldom lost by the first to claim it. 

 Salt Mackerel were as eagerly pounced upon, and as quickly 

 devoured. A fish merchant complained to me of a catch of 

 Herrings being badly mauled by Gannets as the fish hung in 

 the nets before hauling. This is the first time I have ever had 

 complaint made to me with regard to this species being trouble- 

 some ; many Gannets visit the fishing ground, but hitherto have 

 always been described to me as " fishing fair," i.e. naturally. 



Mr. J. H. Gurney ('Irish Naturalist,' October, 1914) defends 

 the Gannet against " alleged destructiveness " to the Herring. I 

 myself have long been convinced that so great is the fecundity 

 of the Herring that it is impossible for sea-birds— Gannets, 

 Cormorants, and others— ever to reduce, let alone deplete, the 

 shoals that annually throng our coasts : the great reduction in 

 numbers of Cetaceans, large and small, in recent years must 

 also be taken into account, as well as the present increasing 

 capture of Dog-fishes for food. Nothing, I am convinced, can 

 ever exhaust the Herring shoals, save the destructive trawl-net, 

 which in a few hours is capable of destroying a hundred million 

 times as many Herrings (in the ova — seeing that this sinks to 

 the bottom) as all the sea-birds in Christendom devour, in the 

 adult form, in a twelvemonth. 



November 18th. — Observed a 2£ lb. Eel brought from sea, 

 which was of an intensely dark blue-black colour all over, with- 

 out the slightest suggestion of silveriness anywhere about it. 



The earlier part of the fishing for Sprats off the Suffolk 



