HERRING, OASPEREAU, SHAD AND OTHER 0LUPE0ID8 



99 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 22a 



demonstrating the hardy nature of the herring's eggs, a feature to which Professor 

 Mcintosh drew attention as a fact of vast importance from a fishery point of view. 

 Indeed sufficient attention has not been directed to this fact, emphasized by Profes- 

 sor Mcintosh, for there can be no doubt that the continued plenitude of the herring 

 in waters, where immense fisheries have been carried on for centuries, is largely due to 

 this hardiness to which that eminent authority drew attention. 



Man is but one of a multitude of destructive agencies making war upon the her- 

 ring; whales, porpoises, -seals, &c., storms, high tides and other physical causes, all add 

 to the destruction. In Gloucester, Kent, and Northumberland counties. New Bruns- 

 wick, herring spawn is heaped up knee-deep for many miles, after severe gales, in some 

 seasons, and is then carried on to the fields for manure. ^ It is impossible,' wrote 

 Dr. Pierre Fortin, a Canadian inspector, more than forty years ago, ' to form a correct 

 idea without seeing it, of the immense abundance of ova of the herring deposited on 

 the Canadian coast, where the herring spawns. I have seen the shore at Pleasant bay, 

 Magdalen islands, covered 2 or 3 feet deep with them for several miles, and oftentimes 

 on returning to my vessel I have seen the sea white with milt for several acres round, 

 though when I passed the same spot two hours before the water was of the usual colour.' 

 On the Pacific coast of Canada the herring schools are no less abundant, indeed they 

 are even more plenteous. From the Straits of Georgia to Queen Charlotte islands, and 

 still further north along the Alaska shores belonging to the United States, the her- 

 ring are incredibly abundant. Near Nanaimo, Vancouver island, the harbours and 

 bays appear to be filled with solid masses of moving herring, and I myself in Febru- 

 ary, 1902, passed through a floating mass of dead herring extending for over two miles 

 as I travelled on the mail steamer from Vancouver to Nanaimo. Whether these fish, 

 which floated in a mass two or three feet deep, die from suflocation, being crowded in 

 narrow inlets and bays, or from submarine explosions or poisonous volcanic influences, 

 has not been determined. In 1883, Burrard Inlet, near Vancouver City, was filled with 

 herring, and by seining on a very small scale over 1,700 barrels of herring were secured, 

 with little labour, which were salted and shipped to Australia, where there was an 

 eager demand for them. Herring oil extracted by cooking and pressure was valued 

 years ago at 40 cents per gallon, and the refuse remaining was converted into fertilizer 

 material. The Alaska Oil and Guano Company, the principal United States producers 

 of herring products on the Pacific coast, sent in 1900 into the markets no less than 

 172,000 gallons of herring oil, extracted from about 60,000 barrels of herring, besides 

 1,200 tons of guano (valued at $26,400), and 192 barrels of salted herring, valued at 

 $960, the oil alone bringing $34,000. Other United States companies put up in the 

 same season 3,000 barrels of salt herring, valued at $14,000. The British parts of the 

 Pacific coast are regarded as even more productive, and a great herring industry lies 

 open for development. Certain bays along the Tsimpsean peninsula and at the north- 

 ern end of the Queen Charlotte group, are crowded with fine herring in the spring. 



On the western Pacific shores the herring are plentiful, and there is a very im- 

 portant fishery on the coast of Japan, where they come in in immense schools from 

 the outside sea to spawn at the end of spring and in the early summer. The west 

 shores of Hokkaido are famous herring resorts; but the schools are generally distri- 

 buted where there is a cold under-current in spring. 



It may be added that over 40,000 barrels of herring are used annually on the At- 

 lantic coast in the lobster fishery of Canada, the value at $1 a barrel thus amounting 

 to $40,000. 



Other Clupeoids, such as sprats, pilchards, shad, gaspereau, &c., appear in similar 

 stupendous quantities when moving to their spawning grounds, or schooling for other 

 purposes. ' I have seen,' said Dr. Matthias Dunn, the Cornwall fishery authority, ' a 

 single porpoise drive tens of thousands of pilchards at will, as easily as a dog could 

 drive a flock of sheep.' 



The Basque sardine fishermen take advantage of this habit of the porpoise (mar- 

 souin), and surround sardines and porpoises with their seine, permitting the porpoises 



