Squamish Streamkeepers
Hundreds if not thousands of tons of herring spawned in the Mamquam Blind Channel in the 1960’s. This mass of herring in turn fed salmon, cod, birds, sea mammals and humans, who could easily scoop up a bucket of herring at will. Life thrived in Howe Sound in those days. This ended by the 1970’s with the industrial development of the Mamquam Blind Channel. It was assumed that the lack of herring meant that the herring had moved elsewhere to spawn.
The development of Squamish Terminals in 1972, at the head of Howe Sound, actually opened up new spawning areas for the herring. Rip rap borders attracted bladder wrack seaweed which allowed some of the herring to continue to spawn successfully. However, it turns out most of the herring found a nice quiet place to spawn under the East Dock on creosote pilings which, unfortunately and unknowingly, killed their eggs by the millions.
In 2006, the Squamish Streamkeepers were checking the net pens that Squamish Terminals had put in to aid salmon enhancement and stumbled onto the dead herring eggs on the creosote pilings under the dock (pictured below). With funding from the Department of Fisheries & Oceans Canada (DFO) for materials and complete support of Squamish Terminals, the Streamkeepers began wrapping the pilings with various materials to see what might protect the numerous but delicate eggs from creosote damage.
Four years later (2010), hundreds of millions of eggs have hatched out successfully and juvenile herring schools have been observed leaving Howe Sound for the open sea. Herring have again shown a preference to spawn around and under the Squamish Terminals docks. Findings from this year have also proven that the herring prefer the wrapped pilings and seaweed over everything else (pictured below).
The herring spawn survival rate in 2010 should be enough to see a notable increase in the herring school beginning in 2011. The Squamish Streamkeepers goal is to monitor the returns and continue to expand their spawning area as needed. It’s entirely possible that within another 3 to 5 years the Howe Sound herring run could be back to many hundreds of tons, like the “good old days”, not so long ago.”
Contributed by Dr. Jonn Matsen, Squamish Streamkeepers Coordinator
