of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



51 



Tarbert, but they were seldom met with in the same locality on two con- 

 secutive nights. It often happened that after a small haul of full fish a 

 better catch of fish in good condition was secured at the same spot a few 

 hours later. As we were desirous of securing some herring ova for obser- 

 vation in the Tarbert Laboratory, Mr Calderwood and I made frequent 

 excursions among the fishing boats. Although we went out three oi 

 four nights a week during August we failed to secure both ripe males 

 and females from the seine trawlers on the same evening. In September 

 the ripe fish nearly all left the loch, and we had to seek them in the 

 Sound of Kilbrannan. This is now an important spawning district, and 

 there are several spots between Skipness and Campbeltown where, I am 

 informed, the fish spawn regularly every season. Our investigations were 

 only pushed so far south as Saddle Point, but I am informed by the 

 Fishery officer at Campbeltown that there are several small spawning banks 

 between Saddle and the Mull of Cantyre. 



Full herring were caught off the point north of Sunidale Bay in 

 August on several occasions, sometimes with the spawn running from 

 them. The ground off Saddle Point is also a favourite spawning place in 

 August and September. On the 11th of September Mr Calderwood 

 obtained ripe fish from a pair of Tarbert skiffs, at the southern point of 

 Cour Bay. The catch was small and the herring of medium size, but 

 nearly all were ripe. A batch of eggs were artificially fertilised and 

 transferred to the Tarbert Laboratory, A pair of Campbeltown skiffs 

 reported that, when dredging with grapnels for a net lost a few days pre- 

 viously at this spot, they brought up large quantities of herring ova on 

 the hooks of the grapnels. Mr Allan (Tarbert) tells me that at the end 

 of October a crew obtained 60 boxes of spawning herring two miles south 

 of Skipness Point in the evening. Next morning another crew secured 

 a take of 200 boxes of fish in excellent condition on the same ground. 

 Thus even outside Loch Fyne the herring seem more or less migratory 

 during the spawning season, but there seems little doubt that the fish which 

 become mature in Loch Fyne deposit their spawn between Skipness and 

 Campbeltown. This occurs chiefly between August and the end of October. 

 I am therefore led to conclude that just as the fishing has left the upper 

 waters of Loch Fyne, so the spawn which under former conditions would 

 have been ^hed in Loch Fyne proper, is now mostly deposited in the 

 Sound of Kilbrannan. 



The question next arises, ' Do the herring on the West Coast spawn 

 twice a year % ' From my stu*dy of the question up to the present I am 

 led to believe they do, but it is difficult to bring forward conclusive proof. 

 If the herring which spawn at Ballantrae in February and March, and 

 those which spawn in the Campbeltown district in the spring, are really 

 those which are found during the summer in Loch Fyne, there is little doubt 

 in the matter. The fish which enter Loch Fyne in xVpril, May, and June 

 are either spent fish, or at any rate fish in which the milt and roe is 

 scarcely developed. During their stay in the loch the milt and roe become 

 matured, and the spawn is shed from August to the end of October, either 

 in Loch Fyne itself or in the Sound of Kilbrannan. I hope to investi- 

 gate this point more thoroughly another season. For the present it may 

 be assumed that the Ballantrae fish spawn in February and March, and 

 probably again in August and September, and that those belonging to the 

 Campbeltown district spawn in spring and autumn. This, however, is only 

 an assumption, and, in the absence of further evidence, can only be 

 accepted provisionally. 



