Abstract
Pacific herring (Clupea harengus p.11asi) spawn synchronously in large schools of several million fish in the near-shore environment, markedly discolouring the surrounding water with suspended milt. This spawning activity has a rapid onset as a school moves inshore. Males appear to initiate spawning in small pockets from which the activity spreads to the rest of the school (Hay, 1985). Spawning continues for several hours in small schools (Hourston and Rosenthal, 1976) and several days in large schools, after wh:.ch the fish move back into deeper waters (Haegele and Schweigert,:985). Without overt behavioural interaction, the spawning female and ma:.e herring deposit gametes on submerged vegetation or other surfaces as trails of sticky eggs or viscous milt (Schaeffer, 1937). Over 20 layers of eggs result in some cases (Haegele and Schweigert, 1985). The deposited milt, together with milt released mid-water, gradually diss:.pates, resulting in the milkiness typical of herring spawning s:.tes. Hay (1985) suggests that high concentrations of milt may inhibit spawning and hence regulate the density of egg deposition.
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© 1992 Springer Science+Business Media New York
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Carolsfeld, J., Sherwood, N.M., Kyle, A.L., Magnus, T.H., Pleasance, S., Kreiberg, H. (1992). Characterization of a Spawning Pheromone from Pacific Herring. In: Doty, R.L., Müller-Schwarze, D. (eds) Chemical Signals in Vertebrates 6. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9655-1_54
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9655-1_54
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