Herring Project

Early November we had a presentation from the Squamish Stream Keepers on the success they have had in bringing herring back to Squamish. They found that the herring were attracted to creosoted piles due to the smoothness as a place to lay their eggs. The creosote killed all the eggs hence no spawn other than that on eel grass which has been disappearing with development along the foreshore. They found that by wrapping the piles with plastic and landscape fabric they were able to get almost 100% success in the spawn and herring have been seen in large numbers again in Howe Sound attracting dolphins. They also made up some Herring Curtains which are lengths of landscape fabric with floats at the top and weighted line on the bottom providing a large attractive surface for the herring to spawn on. We invited Fisheries, members of the local Harbour Authority, local Fishermen and anyone else who wanted to attend to hear the presentation which was very well received. We subsequently obtained some landscape fabric through Fisheries, floats and lead line from local fishermen and with help from our members, members of the Harbour Authority and using the Lions Hall we cut, sewed and assembled almost 300 feet of herring curtains. Christmas Eve we hung herring curtains in Garden Bay along the dock at the pub while other groups have hung curtains in Whiskey Slough, Irvine's Landing and Bargain Harbour. We will be checking the curtains regularly through the January to April period to see if we have been able to attract herring to spawn.