herring

herring are one of the 216 species of the Clupeidae, a family of fishes that includes some of the most important commercial species in the world. They are all pelagic fishes that form dense shoals and feed on plankton. They are caught commercially using purse seine and drift nets. In European waters the herring Clupea harengus is the most important of these fishes, together with sprats and pilchards and, in the Mediterranean, anchovies. A herring, given the chance, will live for over ten years and grow to nearly a kilogram (2 lb) in weight. They have quite specific demands for their spawning grounds, preferring shallow regions where the seabed is muddy and the currents are weak. Their eggs are heavy and settle onto the seabed before hatching. One result of this preference is that the overall population of herring is divided into a number of different stocks, each with a specific spawning area and each tending to spawn at different seasons.

Historically, the herring played a significant political role because wealth from herring fisheries and the salt trade underpinned the power of the Hanseatic League. One of the factors that contributed to the waning in the power of the league was the collapse of the stocks of herring in northern European waters, probably because of climate change with the onset of the mini-ice age in the 17th century.

Bibliography

Hardy, A. , The Open Sea: Its Natural History Pt II. Fish and Fisheries (1959).http://home.eznet.net/˜dminor/O&E9706.htmlhttp://192.171.163.165/history.htm

M. V. Angel