Abstract
TWO researches on food of adult herring have recently been published. It is interesting to compare the results, although Savage's work covers March-October only, chiefly May-August, and Jespersen's was continued throughout the year. The period covered is the same, from 1931 until 1934 and 1935. In 1931 the herring fishery at Bornholm was very poor in both number and size of fish and it was found that those feeding were remarkably few in number, a fact probably correlated with the scarcity of food, especially copepods. Off Shields and in the northern North Sea, however, the year 1931 was a rich feeding year, due almost entirely to the abundance of Calanus. Although Calanus is such an important herring food in many regions it is not present at Bornholm (the low salinity accounting for its absence), the chief copepods being Pseudocalanus elongatus, eaten during the first half of the year, and Temora longicornis and Eurytemora hirundoides (taken together), on the whole even more important, eaten throughout the year, but especially in the winter half.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Food of the Herring*. Nature 141, 257 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/141257a0
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/141257a0