HADDOCK. 
471 
The Haddock spawns in spring, from February or 
March to May or June". The ripe egg s, which are 
developed floating about in the sea, are 1 / 9 of an inch 
(2*82 mm.) in diameter, according to Earll, and in- 
crease in number according to the age of the parent- 
fish, a female 49 cm. long and 1*08 kgm. in weight 
containing about 170,000, ancl one 72 cm. long and 
4 1 / 3 kgm. in weight about 1,839,600. In September, 
off Spitsbergen, the fry are about 35 mm. long, if any 
conclusion may be drawn from our observation on one 
single occasion; but even on the 14th of June Collett 
found Haddock-fry 40 — 50 mm. long in Christiania 
Fjord, and Yarrell 6 states that on the coasts of Eng- 
land “the young are six inches long by the beginning 
of September." In October and November, says Fries, 
some small Haddocks between 100 and 150 mm. in 
length may occasionally be taken on the coast of Bo- 
huslan; but with this exception the fry are never seen. 
Like the young of several other fishes, of the Horse 
Mackerel (see above, p. 87) and the Cod for example, 
the Haddock-fry, according to Sars and Collett, seek 
shelter and food under the bodies of Medusce, together 
with which they drift about, until they are more than 
50 mm. long: and then they probably join their parents 
in deeper water. Off Troraso, however, Lilljeborg 
saw fairly large shoals of young Haddocks keep near 
shore in from 4 to 6 fathoms of water. 
The flesh of the Haddock is excellent, though its 
reputation varies very greatly in different localities and 
at different seasons. In England and in Scandinavia 
middle-sized specimens, between 1 2 and 1 kgm. in 
weight, are considered best. In Ireland the largest spe- 
cimens are most highly esteemed. During the spawning- 
season the Haddock, like other fishes, is not so good 
eating. It is consumed fresh — a boiled Haddock is a 
dish of good flavour and easy of digestion — or also 
salted or dried. In England it generally makes its 
appearance on the table of the well-to-do at breakfast, 
smoked and broiled. The Scotch “Haddies” of Findon, 
near Aberdeen, enjoy a great reputation. After the 
fish is gutted, it is soaked for about three hours in 
brine and then hung in the smoke of burning peat 
and sawdust, but only until it acquires the proper, 
yelloAv colour. It is, thus, very lightly smoked, but 
has a peculiar and not at all unpleasant flavour. Next 
to the Herring, too, the Haddock is the most important 
salt-water fish to the English fisherman. In 1888, in 
England, Scotland, and Ireland, no less than 2,369,012 
cwt. of Haddock were taken, of a value of £943,258 c . 
In Bohuslan, to judge by the average prices at Gothen- 
burg'*, the Haddock sells best from September to April 
inclusive, when it fetches about 1*60 to 2'30 crowns 
(1/9 — 2/6) a score. In 1879 nearly two million Had- 
docks were brought to Gothenburg, most of them in 
November and April. In Bohuslan the Haddock is of 
more importance to the fisherman than merely as an 
article of food. It is chiefly this fish that is used as 
bait in the storfiske (great-fishery) for large Cod and 
Ling. 
The most productive method of fishing for Had- 
docks practised in Sweden is with smabackor (small 
long-lines) or, as they are also called, Haddock-lines, 
about 125 metres long, with 100 hooks attached to 
snoods about 45 cm. long*. These lines are set in 
a continuous line (“link") one after another in deep 
water near shore, at spots where the Haddocks come 
roving in large shoals. They generally lie only a very 
short time, for when the fisherman has paid out the 
last bit of the link, he proceeds to take up the other 
end. A bait of mussels ( Mytilus ednlis ) is usually 
employed. During the whole summer this fishery is 
carried on, in order to provide bait for the large long- 
lines set for Cod and Ling. But even after the latter 
fishery is over, Haddock-lines are set on the west coast 
of Sweden all the autumn and far into the winter, arid 
repay by the abundant catch the toil and difficulties 
which the fishermen must brave to set them. The 
spots chosen at this season are generally in about 30 
“ Earll (see Brown-Goode, 1. c.) found a female that had not yet spawned, as late as the middle of July. Olsen ( Piscat . Atl.) 
states that in England the spawning-season extends over February, March, and April. Ewart describes ( Nature , 1889, May 2nd, p. 13) 
how Scott met with a large shoal of Haddocks spawning at the bottom in about 30 fathoms of water, about 15 miles oft’ the coast of 
Banff. The surface teemed with floating eggs of almost every stage of development, both of the Haddock and the Cod. At a single sweep 
with his tow-net he secured half a million eggs, while the trawlers brought hundreds of spawning fish from deep water. 
b Hist. Brit. Fish., ed. 2, vol. II, p. 234. 
c See The Fish Trades Gazette for the 12th and 26th of January, 1889. 
d v. Yhlen, Die Seejischerei an der Westkuste Schwedens. Appendix to the catalogue of the Swedish department of the Berlin Ex- 
hibition, 1880. 
e A description of this fishery, as it is pursued in the North Sea, on the German coast and off Heligoland, is given by Dalmer in 
Max v. d. Borne’s Handbuch der Fisclizucht and Fischerei, p. 494. 
