At the very bottom of those huge plastic totes, by the time you get down there to bag the last ones the remainder of the scale content is noticeable. It doesn’t mean they’re necessarily missing from the fish in that 20 lb. bag you buy, but more of a cumulative thing from all of them from that huge tote. I do agree with you, though, the bulk of the fish looked really good, and there were some huge herring in there. We saw a big Pilchard in there too.
Any herring that falls over and lands on the ground is thrown out.