Herring

an important food fish. It is related to the shad, alewife, and sardine. There are several species. The common herring of commerce has a spindle-shaped body, blue above, silvery below and well plated with large, thin scales. Found from Cape Cod to France and northward. The herring is a deep sea fish about a foot long. In the autumn, about November, it migrates in immense schools from deep water toward spawning grounds. The name is related to the German heer or army. Millions of herring move together near the surface of the water. The sea flashes for miles with their blue and silvery scales. Dog-fishes plunge into them from below and the air is full of wheeling, screaming gulls and cormorants. Ordinarily fishermen must be content with fair catches. They grow skillful in selecting surface indications of herring below, and set long nets as described in the article on mackerel; but if a boat's crew can get in the way of a large shoal of herring undisturbed, a night's work means comfort for a year. A vast amount of money and labor is expended in the herring fishery. The annual catch off the coast of Norway is worth $2,000,000 a year, and is shared by about 20,000 fishermen. The fishermen of Scotland take 150,000,000 pounds a year. The waters of British America yield about 250,000,000 pounds annually. Herring are found on the American coast from the Carolinas northward. The fishermen of Maine obtain a revenue of $600,000 a year from their sales of fresh, salt, and smoked herring. Notwithstanding enormous catches, the herring still migrate in tightly packed schools from six to twenty square miles in extent. The herring lays from ten to fifty thousand eggs, which adhere in masses to seaweeds, stones, and the bottom of shallow waters. See Mackerel; Fisheries