SEA-FISHERIES LABORATORY. 73 



Thus there appeared to be two " races " of herrings in the 

 Irish Sea — the Manx summer and the Welsh winter spawners. 

 But the conditions are not quite so simple as this. It has been 

 known for some years that herrings may be caught by means 

 of trawl-nets, and big catches were so made, before the war, 

 by steam vessels working in the North Channel (between 

 Scotland and Ireland) and in St. George's Channel (off the 

 Smalls). Some of these fish were examined in 1913 and it 

 was found that they were different from those obtained from 

 the Isle of Man and the Welsh Bays. Further, in 1921 quite 

 unusual conditions were observed. 



At various times in the past there have been commercial 

 fisheries for herrings off the coasts of Cheshire, Lancashire and 

 Cumberland, where the fish do not occur in the same regular 

 way that they are found off the Manx and Welsh coasts. 

 In 1894 they appeared in Liverpool Bay, and the Morecambe 

 vessels followed them, catching the fish with drift-nets in the 

 estuary of the Mersey itself and up the latter to near the 

 entrance to the Manchester Ship Canal. Quite big catches 

 were made for a time and then the herrings disappeared. 

 At various times in the past, even in the eighteenth century, 

 the herrings are recorded from the Lancashire and Cheshire 

 coasts, and there are many records of their occurrence in the 

 Minutes of Evidence of the various Fishery Commissions. 

 Long ago there used to be a fishery off the coast of Cumberland, 

 and the " Parton Herrings," caught a few miles north of 

 Whitehaven, had a great reputation and have left a kind of 

 legend in that part of the district. For many years, however, 

 there have been no herrings off the Cumberland, Lancashire 

 and Cheshire coasts, or, at least, not nearly enough to give rise 

 to a distinct fishery. Now and then, of course, a few fish may 

 be caught almost anywhere along these coasts, and the young 

 ones, of one year old or less, are always there. 



At the end of 1921, however, Morecambe Bay was reported 



