What Happened to the Herring

Posted by Ian Grant

Jon Paine again led a project with the local community to help bring herring back to the coast through providing safe places for them to spawn rather than on creosoeted dock pilings which are toxic to the eggs.

This year we had more nets in the water…..and less herring than last year.

We had herring curtains in Garden bay, Whisky Slough, Bargain Bay, Egmont, and down the coast in Secret Cove and Halfmoon Bay. Where last year eggs were seen on the rocks and pilings in these areas this year the only place that experienced eggs was in Bargain Harbour at Don White's dock. The curtains placed at Don's dock had an estimated million eggs. Just south of Don White’s there were two curtains at Richard Paton’s dock but there were no eggs. It is hard to see why they would spawn at one dock but not 50 meters away at another.

Closeup of Herring Eggs

Jon Paine again led a project with the local community to help bring herring back to the coast through providing safe places for them to spawn rather than on creosoted dock pilings which are toxic to the eggs.

This year we had more nets in the water…..and less herring than last year.

We had herring curtains in Garden bay, Whisky Slough, Bargain Bay, Egmont, and down the coast in Secret Cove and Halfmoon Bay. Where last year eggs were seen on the rocks and pilings in these areas this year the only place that experienced eggs was in Bargain Harbour at Don White's dock. The curtains placed at Don's dock had an estimated million eggs. Just south of Don White’s there were two curtains at Richard Paton’s dock but there were no eggs. It is hard to see why they would spawn at one dock but not 50 meters away at another.

At Don White’s dock at the top end of Bargain Bay, we had some success last year but there was a lot of dead eggs on the nearby creosote pilings. This year we had 40’ of curtains at his dock and had a good spawn on March 22. The estimate was that there were between 5,000 and 10,000 eggs per square foot, all on the dark sides. If we approximate that on the two curtains we had an area with eggs of about 200 square feet and if the eggs averaged 5,000 per square foot, there were approximately 1,000,000 eggs. By the beginning of April, the eggs on the curtains were clear with eyes clearly visible while the eggs on the pilings were opaque and yellow. By April 12^th all but a few of the eggs were gone. The few remaining were white and opaque, probably a result of lack of fertilization or failure to develop.

On April 6,Jon went and checked the curtains at the Garden Bay Pub. Last year we had some success here but this year there were no eggs. We also have some curtains close to the Royal Van Yacht Club but there were little or no eggs. Jon was told by Bryan and Elena in Garden bay that they have had eggs on their pilings for the past 3 years but this year none. We had 40’ of curtain at their dock but no herring eggs.

There were also a couple of curtains on the outside of Garden Bay peninsula at Frank Mauro’s dock but again, no eggs. Frank had lots of eggs last year on the rocks and pilings but this year the herring did not spawn there at all.

Apparently in Halfmoon Bay and Secret Cove the story was similar. There seemed to be a lot less herring around than in previous years.

Peter Sly took some curtains up to Egmont but apparently there were no eggs.

This is an ongoing project that we hope will see herring start to return to the area in greater numbers. We should start to see results in another couple of years as our first hatch returns as mature herring.

Eggs on curtain at Don White's

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