Winter herring investigations in 1972

Agreement was reached at an extraordinary NEAFC meeting in Moscow in December 1971by Island, Norway and USSR of a total ban for 1972 on fishing for adult Norwegian spring sprawning herring, except for a restricted fishery in connection with scientific investigations. In order to trace the distribution and migration of winter herring R.V. "Johan Hjort" (6 January—2 February and 2—13 March) and M.S. «Havdrøn» (10—20 January) were used. In addition five comercial purse seiners were chartered from 17 January to 11 March by the Norwegian government. Obervers from the Institute of marine research were on board two of the purse seiners and joint surveys were carried out throughout the season. During the surveys radio communication between ships was mantained twice a day to report the observations made. The purse seiners were allowed to fish for biological sampling according to instruction given by the Director of fisheries. However, no herring were recorded with sonar and echo sounder, and the purse seiners did not catch any herring. It was concluded that only insignificant number of adult herring approached the Norwegian coast for spawning in 1972. Occassionally spawning herring were caught by set nets at different places along the coast from Stad to Lofoten. They were mainly herring of the Norwegian spring spawning type. The investiations indicate that the spawning stock is at a very low level