SEA-FISHERIES LABORATORY. 111 
The Herring as a National Food Asset. 
We may consider, first of all, this Manx Summer herring 
fishery—about which we possess fuller information, from the 
food point of view, than any other. The annual quantities of 
herrings landed were :— 
1914. Edible portion | % Proteid % Fat 
in edible portion. 
May 677 57 % 20 oe st 
June 3,914 63 % 19 19 
July 9,183 63 % 17 29 
Aug 5,518 (67 %)* 16 34 
Sept 629 72% 17 29 
Oct 15 (57 %/)* 
19,936 
Converting the quantities landed into metric tons (units of 
1000 kilogrammes, 1 kilo.=2°205 Ibs; 1 ton = 2240 lbs.) and 
then “‘ expanding” these quantities in terms of energy-values 
we obtain the following table. A mean chemical composition 
must not be taken, for the quantities landed per month are not 
the same. The mean monthly compositions (means of the 
months of 1916-1917) are “ weighted”’ by the corresponding 
mean monthly catches giving the columns (3) to (4) in the 
next Table which professes to give the quantities of fats and 
proteids landed in the Isle of Man in the form of fresh herrings. 
Here we have an estimate based on data that are, appar- 
ently, quite reliable. It is, of course, of little practical value, 
for we do not know in what particular forms the herring flesh 
was eaten. Much of it was eaten fresh (fried, no doubt), some 
was salted, and some kippered. But none of it was eaten raw, 
and the final results of column (5) are necessarily based on 
that assumption. 
* There were no observations for these months and the values in brackets 
are interpolated. 
