Tag Archives: Herring Run

Animals

Birds are smarter than you think

Sandra Milligan has been teaching biology at North Island College, in Campbell River, for more than 20 years. She is an avid birder with deep roots in her local community. Someone from Sierra Quadra came to lecture she gave on bird intelligence, at ElderCollege in Campbell River, last fall. This led to Sierra Quadra inviting Milligan to speak at the Quadra Community Centre at 7:30  PM in Saturday, March 2. 

“Birds are incredibly intelligent, contrary to what science has believed in the past.  They understand what each other is thinking. One of my favourite topics, because I’m a bird watcher, (aka a bird listener) is to talk about bird communication and language. They can have hundreds (and thousands even) of different vocalizations and they really communicate in much more depth than science previously believed to be happening,” she explained.  

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Indigenous Nations History, Rivers & Oceans

New study shows how industrial development decimated fish populations near Vancouver

Editor’s note: To what extent is modern infrastructure responsible for the crash of fish populations? The book cited below explores how a 3,000 year-old fishery was destroyed when the city of Vancouver came into existence, but this is not a purely urban phenomenon. In a 2016 interview, Cortes Island streamkeeper Cec Robinson described how there is very little gravel left in Cortes Island streams because of early logging practises. This makes it more difficult for salmon to find places to spawn. When Provincial biologist Sean Wong installed a new culvert in Basil Creek, he told Cortes Currents there are 140,000 culverts in BC that are barriers to fish trying to migrate to their spawning grounds. Prior to the erection of the first dam in 1911, Powell River was a major spawning ground for Sockeye Salmon.

By Mina Kerr-Lazenby, North Shore News, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

A new study examining the historical decline of fish populations in Vancouver waters highlights the detrimental impacts urban development has had on the local environment, and way of life for First Nations communities.

The Rise of Vancouver and the Collapse of Forage Fish, published in December by Western Washington University, tracks the decrease in numbers of ocean forage fish like herring, smelt and eulachon between 1885 and 1920.

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Rivers & Oceans

Pacific herring spawn spectacle surfaces along West Coast

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Ribbons of milky turquoise green water twist and swirl along the coast of the northern Strait of Georgia each year when Pacific herring return to spawn. 

A natural wonder that peaks in March, the herring spawn is a herald of spring, eagerly anticipated and celebrated by humans and wildlife alike. 

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Rivers & Oceans

Herring cut not enough, says west coast First Nation

qathet Living, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

For decades, the Salish Sea’s herring nearly disappeared, starving local salmon, whales and other species. The run miraculously came back in 2014. 

Since then, Ottawa has allowed commercial boats to harvest 20 per cent of the herring run – in spite of lobbying by First Nations and environmental groups. 

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Indigenous Nations, Rivers & Oceans

Tla’amin Nation welcomes return of herring spawn

the Discourse, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

It’s been a welcome sight for millennia for the Tla’amin Nation — every year in March or April, the waters would turn milky white as the herring sperm fertilized eggs and attached to algae beds of kelp and eelgrass, says Chileneh Scott Galligos, a fisheries technician with Tla’amin.

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