WHITEBAIT, the vernacular name of a small Clupeoid fish which appears in large shoals in the estuary of the Thames during the summer months, and is held in great esteem as a delicacy for the table. As to whether or not it is a distinct form, the opinions of naturalists have been divided ever since their attention was directed to the question. Pennant and Shaw believed it to be some kind of Cyprinoid fish, similar to the bleak, whilst Donovan, in his Natural History of British Fishes (1802-8), misled by specimens sent to him as whitebait, declared it to be the young of the shad. In 182Ó Yarrell proved conclusively that Donovan’s opinion was founded upon an error; unfortunately he contented himself with comparing whitebait with the shad only, and in the end adopted the opinion of the Thames fishermen, whose interest it was to represent it as a distinct adult form; thus the whitebait is introduced into Yarrell’s History of British Fishes (1836) as Clupea alba. The French ichthyologist Valenciennes went a step further, declaring it to be not only specifically but also generically distinct from all other Clupeoids. On examining the specimens of Clupea alba which passed from Yarrell’s collection into the British Museum, the present writer found them to be the young of the common herring (Catal. Fish. Brit. Mus., vii. p. 416, 1868); and this conclusion was fully borne out by visits to the Thames boats and by an examination of their captures on the spot. The bulk of the whitebait caught consists, in May and June, chiefly of the fry of herring, mixed with a number of shrimps, gobies, sticklebacks, pipe-fishes, young flounders, and an occasional sprat. But, the Thames being unequal to the supply of the large demand for this delicacy, large quantities of whitebait are now ...brought to London and other markets from many parts of the coast. They frequently consist of a much greater proportion of young sprats than the fish obtained from the Thames; and they sometimes prove a valuable mine for the collector, who may find mixed with them pelagic animals (such as the smaller kinds of Cephalopods) which are not at all, or but rarely, met with at the mouth of the Thames or on the south coast generally. In times past whitebait were considered to be peculiar to the estuary of the Thames; and, even after the specific identification of Thames whitebait with the young of the herring from other localities, it was still thought that there was a distinctive superiority in the condition and flavour of the former. It is possible that the young herrings find in the estuary of the Thames a larger amount of suitable food than on other parts of the coast, where the,water may be of greater purity, but possesses less abundance of the minute animal life on which whitebait thrive. Indeed, Thames whitebait -which have been compared with young herrings from the mouth of the Exe, the Cornish coast, Menai Strait, and the Firth of Forth seemed to be better fed; but, of course, the specific characteristics of the herring,—into which we need not enter here,—were nowise modified.
The fry of fishes is used as an article of diet in almost every country: in Germany the young of various species of Cyprinoids, in Italy and Japan the young of nearly every fish capable of being readily captured in sufficient numbers, in the South Sea Islands the fry of Teuthis, in New Zealand young Calaxias are consumed at certain seasons in large quantities; and, like whitebait, these fry bear distinct names, different from those of the adult fish.
Whitebait fishing in the Thames lasts from the end of March to September. The majority of the fish caught at the beginning of spring are about two inches long; as the season advances the proportion of larger specimens becomes greater, although very small ones occur abundantly throughout the season,— thus apparently confirming the opinion of those who maintain that the herring is in its spawning not bound to any particular month. Whitebait are caught on the flood-tide from boats moored in from 3 to 5 fathoms of water. The net used is a bag some 20 feet long, narrow and small-meshed towards the tail-end, the mouth being kept open in the direction of the advancing tide by a framework 3 or 4 feet square. It is placed alongside the boat and sunk to a depth of 4 feet below the surface; from time to time the end of the bag is lifted into the boat, to empty it of its contents. The ‘ ‘ schools” of whitebait, advancing and retiring with the tide for days and probably for weeks, have to run the gauntlet of a dozen of these nets, and therefore eet verv much thinned in num·
ber by the end of the season. When the view commenced to gain ground that whitebait were young herring, the question arose whether or not the immense destruction of the young brood caused by this mode of fishing injuriously affected the fishery of the mature herring. This undoubtedly it does; but, since it has been ascertained that the herring is much more restricted in its migrations than was formerly believed, and that it merely moves from the feeding-grounds in the depth of the ocean to the shallower spawning-grounds of the neighbouring coast, the injury, such as it is, must be local and limited to the particular district in which the fishing for whitebait is methodically practised.
