small fish

Herring season is upon us here on the east coast of Vancouver Island. I have always enjoyed the look of our bay when it is filled with Gill-netters and seiners. It harkens back to a romantic era when men worked hard on the sea and their strong women kept the house. The wifes made good meals and minded their many children, and waited for their husbands to return.  I picture the rocky shoreline of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, and of Scotland; I am transplanted to another time. This year, I still took pictures, but I also looked further into the value of the herring.

The herring run comes once a year, usually in the second or third week of March. It came early this year, perhaps because of our warmer-than-usual temperatures. “Herring come close to shore to spawn and fishermen can see where the females will be by locating the milky white trail left by the male herring. Roe is extracted from the female fish here in B.C before being shipped to Japan.”Walter Cordery, Nanaimo Daily News The rest of the fish (88%) is then used for fertilizer and animal feed. Even though only the eggs of the female are prized, large masses of both female and male herring are captured. 

That's the part that got to me. We don't even use the whole fish? I like the way herring is used in traditional Coastal First Nations culture. They collect the roe that has been deposited on the kelp. The spawning female will continue to grow and spawn again, or to be eaten by something else.

The herring is important to the ecosystem by linking its food, zooplankton, to species hiigher up in the food chain, such as larger fish, marine mammals, and shore birds. We need to ensure conservative catches and protect the spawning areas of the herring.

My eyes have been opened, but I still enjoy taking pictures.