Rigby’s Encyclopaedia of the Herring

aka The Herripedia

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A IS FOR A BEGINNING

On the fossil origins of herring in the Sea of Tethys, on the geographical spread of the Clupeidae and, in particular, our hero Clupea harengus

ARCHAEOLOGY

The earliest kitchen middens archaeological record of herring eating and why no earlier herring bones have been found

BALTIC HERRING

On the Baltic herring, Clupea harengus membras, found in the eastern and northern Baltic and in the Gulf of Bothnia

DIVINE PROVIDENCE

On interpreting the herring's grand migration as a gift from God, the ensuing arguments between nations and the eventual progress of science.

FARTING

The herring's squeak or fart, from C17th Lübeck to 1980s Soviet submarine incursions into Swedish waters and a 2003 Ig Nobel Award

FEEDING

On when herrings feed, their favourite foods at different points in their life cycle and the effect of what they eat on their own oiliness

LIFE CYCLE

An account of the herring's life cycle, its eight identified stages and a brief history of the development of that classification

MIGRATION & MOVEMENT

An account of the herring's long misunderstood migratory travels, the pursuit of abundance and factors that enable or would inhibit this

NEUCRANTZ: ON HERRING (1654)

Including a complete, illustrated translation of Paul Neucrantz' C17th treatise on the herring together with notes on his sources

OTOLITHS & SCALES

On the use of growth rings in either to calculate a herring's age, together with details of the research pioneers who first used them

RACIAL THEORY

The development of thinking around herring population difference and some uncomfortable parallels with racial theories of mankind

RING NET: WILL MACLEAN

An interview with Scottish artist Will Maclean on his documentary exhibition, The Ring Net, which he developed between 1973 and 1978

SALT

An 8,000 year history of salt and salt pickling, paying particular attention to the preservation of herrings by the German Hanse, the Dutch and the British.

SARDINES

The sardine in cans, on the slab and in popular culture; the limits of self-identification for herrings and non-European pilchards

SCANIA FISHERY

The story of the first great empire-shaping herring fishery together with historical and scientific speculations on its rise and its fall

SHOALS

On an evolutionary strategy aimed at dealing with predation, which didn't imagine the purse seine net or the unregulated pursuit of profit

SPAWNING

On the spawning preferences of the herring, together with a list of the spawning grounds for the main Eastern Atlantic populations

SVETOVIDOV

On the Russian fish systematist who, having dealt the gadoid species, turned his great mind to the clupeidae

TAXONOMY

On the biological classification of the herring and the taxonomic can of worms it opens up at species level and below

TOURISM: MISSED OPPORTUNITIES

On AC Hardy's proposal for a herring research centre and William Hodgson's brief vision of what might have been a formidable tourist attraction

ZOOLOGY

Heavily reliant on the zoological description of the Soviet systematist AN Svetovidov, an account of what a herring is

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