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What is a Herring?
Herring are small, round fish which can mostly be found in the coastal waters. Herring move in large schools, they are forage fish that like shallow, temperate waters. The herring we sell on our fish vans and fish market stalls come from the North Sea. They are only available for a short period of the year, between July and September. August is the best time to buy herring, therefore we recommend customers make the most of it in the summer! It’s no surprise that salted, smoked and pickled herring (roll mops) are popular as it preserves the fish to last longer.
History of Herring Fishing
In the early 19th Century, herring was a delicacy easily caught off the Coast of Scotland. There were 30,000 vessels in herring fishing during this time, not including the others in the Irish Sea. The numbers continued to grow until the Scottish fishing industry became the largest in Europe.
Herring had to be cured quickly to avoid rotting as it was a fatty fish. In 1907, 2.5 million barrels of fish were cured and exported from Scotland to mainly Eastern Europe, Russia, Scandinavia and Germany. The barrels were layered with the first layer of herrings at the bottom of the barrel, belly up and tightly packed. It was important to have the best gutted fish at the top layers as the inspections didn’t always go deeper in the barrel. The herrings would shrink in the brine. The salt pickle was drained off but kept. The barrels were topped up with new layers of herring and the pickle poured back in, then the lid was put back on. The traditional way of barrel salting gives the herring a natural brown colour and the texture of the fish is tender and firm. Salted herring is better at absorbing the brine flavours than herring pickled in vinegar.
The herring industry soon became not local nor seasonal as the boats followed the shoals around the coast of Britain. Girls from fishing villages, known as fisher lasses, were as young as 15 that travelled from port to port to gut and pack the herring. They worked in teams of three: two gutters and a packer. Unless the fishing was poor, they worked long hours from 6am to 6pm, sometimes until 9pm or even early hours in the morning. Up until 1918, the curers would lift the baskets, known as farlins, of herring and salt from shin level, which was a back-breaking requirement to pick up the fish.
The industry fell when the fishermen became the backbone of the Royal Naval Reserve for The First World War due to their vast knowledge of the seas. By the late 1970s, early 1980s, the herring fishery was closed to enable stock recovery. Today, the North Sea stock has bounced back, it is the only herring fishery in the north-east Atlantic that is independently certified by the Marine Stewardship Council for sustainable harvesting. Herring is sustainable, nutritious, delicious and great value for money. It’s time to rediscover our love for the ‘silver darlings’ bringing it back to local!
Our mission at West Coast Sea Products is to provide local seafood to local people. Eating and shopping local benefits our whole community and industry. That is why we supply our produce to local restaurants. This reduces food miles and provides high quality fresh produce. No one wants frozen produce flown from across the world!
