Herring spawn reports?

[blueugl]

Was walking on Saratoga beach during the ebb tide,the eel grass is COVERED in herring spawn for at least the 2km we walked, you could pick it up in hand fulls.There was thousands of gulls gorging and 4 sea-lions working off shore. The long time locals said they had never seen this much spawn in at least 25 years ! This bodes well for the Salish Sea my friends, lets hope the dark times are over and limits of Cape Mudge coho are in our future !

It is strange the way one day it will cover the beach and the next it is mostly gone and today again it is as heavy as it has ever been it is a foot deep south half of the beach and really starting to smell.
Terry

 

[ChoveyRoller]

I want a drone!
https://youtu.be/sopq3-lu9ow

Powell River March 17th

 

[SpringVelocity]

So cool....

 

[fshnfnatic]

Very cool indeed.The picture quality on that drone was amazing!I wonder if it was a gopro?

 

[Andrew P]

Here is a little video of the effort of my Dad and the rotary club in Pender Harbour. This is the first year that there would be returning herring from when they started diverting the herring from spawning on the creosote pilings. Could be a coincident but some pretty good results none the less!!

https://vimeo.com/123042307

 

[Oly1]

Those results look great Andrew. Good on your dad and the Rotary club for having the initiative to take on a project like this. Great to see people making a difference instead of just complaining that the herring seem to be declining. Kudos to all the volunteers

 

[Derby]

Great effort and job guys....

 

[Hot Reels]

Herring spawning north from Neck Point to Nanoose Bay today. Lots of commercial boats. We got our bait for the year!

 

[Andrew P]

Well, I am sure that a lot of you have seen that it is getting quite heated on the Central Coast right now between the First Nations and DFO. The FN have stated that they will not allow a gillnet fishery to take place and as of yesterday had occupied the DFO office on Denny Island.

I am heading up there on Saturday through Wednesday to celebrate my 35th bday, witness the spawn, the drama and ask a lot of questions. I'll share what I experience.

 

[eaglemaniac]

Good on ya AP. Safe travels. eman

 

[Rum Buddies]

good luck andrew and take lots of pics!

 

[ChoveyRoller]

Nice!!! Looking forward to the report! Safe travels

 

[kaelc]

Nice work Hot Reels. What are the chances of finding some stranglers in the Comox area this weekend?

 

[Cuba Libre]

Stranglers??? Dont think thats what you mean somehow...LOL As far as finding jiggable herring-- I would think not.. But its possible

 

[Suke Skywalker]

Some interesting information (I thought)...
I was talking to a Fisheries officer this week, and he said that the commercial fleet on the east side of Vancouver Island didn't meet their quota
in either the seine fishery (fish that were caught were low quality--small with few eggs) nor in the gill net fishery (many fish would pass through the
mesh openings because they were too small.

He noted that this would be an indication that though the biomass is large (as others have noted) --most of the adult fish are in the 3-4 year age class. I guess this bodes well for the future as the younger adults mature over the next few years.

On March 18th on Hornby Island, my family was able to watch sea lions, seals, and many types of birds, including an estimated
200 bald eagles feeding on some of the large schools of herring between Hornby and Denman. Very cool to see no much nature in action!

They are really an amazing fish, and I though some of you would find this comment on the 2015 commercial harvest interesting, and perhaps have some additional info to share.

 

[captmike]

to date the GN caught 4,168 T of a 13,975 T quota and the seines 8,827 T of a 15,440 T quota. The main reason being a low price in Japan since much product left over from last year and only about 1/4 of the GN fleet went out. Poss the young Japanese are more interested in big macs than herring roe.

 

[SpringVelocity]

what is story on Gorge this year haven't heard much?

 

[OldShoreFisherman]

what is story on Gorge this year haven't heard much?

SV,

I think it was a pretty decent run this year. It started fairly early, late January/early February, and some of the regulars were still catching some off the Admirals bridge last week. I don't have a boat (don't need bait) so I only went down a few times to fish for enough for a fresh meal, but checked it out regularly and a lot of people seemed to be taking quite a few given that the run is barely recovering. I was shocked when I heard several people had 400 or 500 in their freezers and were still catching them. About three weeks ago one guy told me he already had 450 in his freezer for halibut fishing (how many herring do you need to catch six halibut?) and now was just catching them for fertilizer for his garden -- he was still catching them last Tuesday. I really don't understand why anyone would feel the need to do that, given the still-fragile state of the run.

Anyway, the run has been tailing off the last few weeks and is probably pretty much done now.

Many of the fish were on the small size -- five or six inches -- but there were a few waves of larger herring in the 10 inch to 12 inch range.

There was someone down there doing creel counts fairly regularly, so maybe there will be an estimate published at some point.

Personally, I wouldn't mind if they closed the fishery for a couple of years to see if the run will really rebound.

 

[Rum Buddies]

nice to hear the gorge actually get a decent run - but ya maybe they should just shut it down and let them rebuild.


Andrew, any sign of a run this year in the inlet? I haven't heard anything....

 

[kaelc]

Herring stragglers, or herring late to the party in the comox area? It seems to pretty slow at Admirals bridge, just a few die hard guys left jigging on Sunday and saw 3 little ones caught. I tried of my paddle board with no luck. OldshoreFisherman, have to agree with you.