Sperm Storage and Cross-Fertilization of Spring and Autumn Spawning Herring

THIS preliminary communication gives the results of some experiments conducted at the Marine Laboratory, Aberdeen, in 1953, as part of a more extensive herring-rearing programme. They show that it is possible to cross-fertilize the two spawning ‘types’ of herring (Clupea harengus) found in the north-east Atlantic, one of which spawns in the spring, the other in the autumn.