Their rural location made it difficult for them to acquire resources, and many of the community opposed the new technology. You have to remember that this was before the beginning of the Piscal Revolution. People were still hand-making their fishaxes. The factory farms hadn't begun to churn them out. Their herrings, despite their small size and fragility, were an important part of the culture, unlike the cheap minnow-knives we use today.

You have to remember, like the Japanese Squidswords (generically described as katanas), Octopussabers (Wakizashis, in common parlance), or the mighty Greatsharks (Ōdachi), the Niic herrings were works of art, but they required a specific set of techniques to properly employ. Given their heritage as speakers of Ekki-ekki-ekki-ekki-PTANG. Zoom-Boing (z'nourrwringmm dialect, specifically), they had access to oral resources lost to us. We have access to the more widespread general European tree-cutting manuals, but you have to understand that they wouldn't have used their herrings in the way we might go out and clumsily whack down a bush with a common Tilapia or a manufactured Salmon.

TL;DR: The new fishtools hadn't penetrated that far into rural areas, and their herrings weren't necessary less effective than cods in the hands of a skilled tree-feller.

It's possible that the explanation was known by contemporaries of the era, but unfortunately, they seldom lived to tell the tale.

Tradition mostly. The Knights of Nee refused to accept the modern, more efficient cod. This did eventually lead to the end of their order. After all herring simply can't compete with more modern fish.

We're traditionalists.

This isn't exactly my area of expertise, so sorry if I don't get all the details right, but if I remember correctly, historian J. Cleeze wrote a book called And the Number of the Counting Shall Be Three: the Book of Armaments in the History of Britain.

Basically, he theorized that the upper level clergy of the Knighthood of Ni was at the time desperately trying to conserve funds to buy the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch in order to deal with a rabbit related problem. So they kept using herring despite its relatively inefficiency compared to cod or even monkfish, the other typical chopping material favored by the church.

Hope this helps...

Edit: looked it up and basically cod cost 3x more than herring.

I'll answer you if you get me--another shrubbery!!!!!!!!!!!