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