2nd Victoria Herring Symposium: April 5

We received some news from Jim Shortreed, our local advocate for herring conservation:

With the generous support of the Capital Regional District the 2nd Victoria Herring symposium is ON. The venue is the Gorge Waterway Pavilion, the evening of April 5. This is an evening of local knowledge of herring being shared. Call me for tickets [Jim Shortreed 250 937 9475].

Setting Branches to attract Spawning Herring

This year everyone is getting organized to set hemlock branches at Fisherman’s Wharf, Causeway, Victoria International Marina, Banfield Marina, and Pearson International School at Pedder Bay. The Songhees First Nation is setting branches near Fisgard Light, that’s where the herring spawned in 2022. Its a fun project and easy to volunteer for. Call me to volunteer, it’s fun and easy, you collect all sorts of sealife. Call me if you need your hemlock pruned, we’ll take all hemlock.
Feb 27 2024 email from Jim Shortreed

Herring spawn on Douglas Fir branches, Departure Bay

For background, please see our earlier post regarding the establishment of the Herring Conservation and Restoration Society.

Pacific Herring and Spawning

The ACS heard recently from Jim Shortread regarding Pacific herring fisheries. Jim thanked the ACS for supporting the Industrial Herring Moratorium. Herring fisheries have now been closed south of Nanaimo and all the way to Race Rocks at the request of First Nations.

On the 25th of March in 2022 there were 170 tonnes of herring spawn at Fisgard Light and Royal Beach. Over the past decade herring spawning has been rather random. The last spawn at Esquimalt was 1998, and there are hopes for the herring to return this spring and spawn again.

The Songhees First Nation is planning on setting hemlock branches at Fisgard Light and three marinas downtown: Fisherman’s Wharf, Causeway Marina and Victoria International Marina. There will be a formal ceremony at Causeway Marina to call the herring in to spawn on the hemlock branches.

There is a strong volunteer team at Fisherman’s Wharf and that is the best spot to drop-in and see what they are doing; branches for herring spawn will be placed at Fishermen’s Wharf on March 11 starting at 10:00 AM. There will be nylon enhancement panels installed as well. Everything will be hung on the seaward side of the crab dock which is the furthest dock from the entrance.

Jim continues:

We are really looking forward to finding adult herring in the month of March. We will dissect the herring and measure the weight of the gonads and the weight of the fish to determine if the herring will be spawning soon.

And if the herring do decide to spawn in Esquimalt again… well, then we need jiggers for sure. We need to collect 25 to 75 spawners for dissection and DNA sampling.

So any help you can give in finding adult herring in the month of March will be most appreciated.

For more information on this topic, or to volunteer your time and/or knowledge, please contact Jim Shortread by email or by phone.