The great cod fisheries are in February and March and comprise an area stretching from Bergen in the south to Finmark in the north, with the Lofoten Islands as the main centre. The Finmark cod-fishery opens later in the spring. The herring fisheries commence in mid-winter and frequently earlier, and usually yield the best catches on the west coast, with Aalesund, Bergen, and Haugesund as the centres. The “small” her- ring is found, frequently in great shoals, in the coastal waters of Northern Norway. Brisling is fished in Oslo Fjord, and mainly in the fjords and skerryguard of Western Norway between Stavanger and Bergen. Mackerel fishing commences in May and continues till late in the autumn. The richest catches are made in May and June, and especially off the stretches of coast from the Swedish frontier to Western Norway. A consider- able quantity of mackerel is landed also from the Skagerak and the North Sea. Only a small percentage of the yield of these fisheries is consumed in Norway. The greater part is prepared in various ways for exportation. Herrings are mostly exported fresh (packed in ice) and salted. A certain quantity is utilised by fish-oil makers. Cod is prepared in the form of klipfish (salted and dried), and as stockfish (unsalted and dried), other fish of the cod family is exported in ice, as are also halibut and other flatfish, and mackerel. Brisling is prepared as a tinned product under the name of Norwegian brisling-sardines and 141