SEA-FISHERIES LABORATORY. 107 
degree possible and the investigations instigated by the 
Fish Food Committee had this for their object. 
Sprats are caught principally off the coasts of Devon, 
Kent, Essex and Suffolk in the south, and in Morecambe Bay 
in the north-west. There are Scottish fisheries, mainly in the 
Tay, and there is little doubt that the fish occurs elsewhere. 
The supply is indefinitely large, being limited only by the 
catching power employed, which depends again on the demand. 
The latter is very limited. Before the war sprats landed at 
British ports were (a) sold for manure ; (6) salted and exported 
to the continent of EKurope ; (c) packed by one or two canning 
factories; (d) consumed fresh; and (e) salted and smoked 
and sold in this state, or made into fish pastes. 
The fish were but little appreciated in the fresh condition, 
and were probably rather a nuisance than otherwise to the 
wholesale and retail fishmongers, who probably preferred, as 
a rule, to ““ handle ”’ herrings and other larger, more profitable, 
and more easily kept fish. The trade with the Continent (mainly 
Norway) had developed to a considerable extent before 1914, 
the sprats being salted, somewhat after the manner of pickled- 
herrings, packed in barrels and exported. There appears to be 
some doubt as to their further use and it is said that they were 
“de-salted”’ by some process involving osmosis and then 
packed after the manner of sardines. They also appear to have 
been repickled in the style of anchovies or used otherwise as 
“ delikatessen,”’* and it is probable that the bulk of the English 
and Scottish sprats exported were used in this way. | 
Smoked and dried sprats, sold in bundles and boxes, 
were a familiar article of food in London in the years before 
the “ Fish (Prices) Order” of 1918. The cure varied greatly, 
some .sprats being lightly salted and smoked for immediate 
(>) 
consumption, and others being “dipped” in annatto and 
* See Fish Trades’ Gazette for March Ist, 1919, where recipes for the 
pickles are published. 
