the Atlantic herring was the most important energy-supplier of the human being from the sea for centuries. There were warlike and diplomatic confrontations for this people-food.
Way of life The herring is a distinct swarm-fish, that itself fish-spawn from small-cancers (plankton), swimming-snails, and - larvae as well as from small fishings nourishes. Herring-swarms undertake conditional hikes between its solid spawn-places and the main-abidance-areas seasonally, that follow the food-offer. The knowledge of the footpaths and the respective seasons is for favorable catches of the fishery-fleets of crucial importance.
Division into groups The herring-population is not uniform within the big spread-area in the entire North-Atlantic but subdivides itself into different groups, that distinguish not only by its habitats but also through different spawn-habits and spawn-times as well as through of each other deviant fuss-numbers.
Youth-development According to the herring-group, the egg-number fluctuates: The Winter-Frühjahrs-Laicher produce until 40 000 eggs, that Sommer-Herbst-Laicher up to 70 000, that sink to the ground and often form one on the other incredibly large accumulations in several layers. The 6-8 mm long, transparent larvae climb at the surface and are carried away by currents. In the age of approximately 6 months, the larvae of the shelf-herring immigrate into the coast-areas. In this age, they go through the transformation to the young-fish-little and now have a length of 3,1-4,4 cm with the Frühjahrslaichern and a length of 4,4-6,0 cm near the Herbstlaichern.
Growth, ages The herring is approximately 9 cm long in the age of one year, at the end of the second year of life 16-18 cm and in the third 21-23 cm (shelf-herring of the North sea). The longitudinal-growth only amounts to approximately 1 cm per year after it. Rarely, herrings gain a length of over 40 cm. The herrings become sexually mature at the earliest in the third, mostly however only in the 4.-9. Year of life, with what sooner the animals in the southern area, that the spawn-maturities later attain in the northern one. The life expectancy amounts to 12-16 years with the southern herrings, with which however northern 23-25 years.
Enemies The herring is one of the preferred loot-fish for numerous types of animal. Already the eggs overlapping in layers are eaten in large number of Dorschartigen, flat-fishing, Stachelhäutern and mussels. For the larvae, it doesn't go better: they especially are a sought-after loot for jellyfishes, arrow-worms and fish. Those young and adult herrings become u dolphins from bigger fishings (mackerels, tunas, Dorschartige, salmon, of herring, thorn, and Greenland-shark), numerous seabirds (seagulls, Lummen, divers, bass-dolts) and Meeressäugern (dog-seals). a. Whale-types, hunted.
Economic meaning The herring is one of the most important fish for the Meeresfishesrei. No other fish found such a versatile application, be it smoked as kipper, salted as Matjes or put in as Rollmops or Bismarck-herring. in 1985, the catch-profit still amounted to 1,4 million tons world-wide, however the profits are retrograde. Constantly improved Ortungs and catch-technologies (orientation by ultrasound-echo-sounder) yes even through Erdsatelliten!), exclusively economic points of view and competition-thinking of the herring-catch-nations led to a depletion of unimaginable size at the continuances of the East-Atlantic herring. The most, the "Gammelfishesrei" contributes to the final extermination of the last herring-continuances, d. h. the catch of also the small and smallest, not yet sexually mature animals for the fish-flour-factories. The regeneration of the herring-populations is prevented with it, and it is a question of few years that the commercial herring-catch must be discontinued from "lack of mass".
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