Lunar Influence on the East Anglian Herring Fishery

Abstract

FLUCTUATION in the yield from year to year, from month to month, and even from day to day, is one of the outstanding and disconcerting characteristics of all herring fisheries. For thirteen seasons, 1921–1933 inclusive, careful records have been kept of the amount of herrings landed daily at Yarmouth and Lowestoft during the late autumn (October-November) fishery off the East Anglian coast. These figures of daily landings have now been submitted to detailed analysis by the scientific staff of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Lowestoft, who find that they reveal a definite monthly rhythm in the catches, the maxima coinciding with the period of full moon.