Herring feeding on herring

[Bugs]

Thought some of you science minded folks might be interested. We were off the south end of Hornby on Monday and there were several acres of balls of very small baitfish (3 cm?). They were so dense that you could scoop them up with your hands. Underneath were mature herring, slashing up into the smaller fish and clearly feeding on them. I was pretty sure the small fish were herring and emailed a DFO biologist who confirmed that they looked like juvenile herring. I have some video I will try to post. I have attached a photo of the little fish and a fuzzy underwater photo of the feeding


It makes you think about just how complex the trophic relationships are in the Georgia Strait foodweb. Herring are salmon food and so many other things... I knew they competed with juvenile salmon for planktonic food but never thought they would be competing with salmon for themselves... Pretty cool

 

[wagner]

Outstanding work. What great photos. Thanks

 

[Charter Tofino]

Very cool! Thanks for that

 

[firelight]

great post, thanks for that

 

[Old Seadog]

Nice Work....Never saw that....Big fish eat little fish!!!!!

 

[Sharphooks]

I once cut open a 2 kg hake and inside its stomach was a 1 kg hake.

I think deep down inside our genes we're all cannibals at heart.

I mean surely you must have heard about that guy named Hannibal who passed his brother in the woods?



BTW, Cool pix! I'll never look at plankton feeders the same way again.

 

[Seafever]

This is the book you need for reference to all fish species in the salt off British Columbia.

Pacific Fishes Of Canada by J.L.Hart

It is a reference book with pics.

Mine is about 35 years old. I think they still publish it.

Good info about Herring.........

According to the book....adult Herring eat:- Eulachon,Herring, Starry flounder,Ronquil, Sandlance,hake, marbled Sculpin,Rockfish.......these would be all infant and juvenile forms I assume.

 

[yammy5]

This is the book you need for reference to all fish species in the salt off British Columbia.

Pacific Fishes Of Canada by J.L.Hart

It is a reference book with pics.

Mine is about 35 years old. I think they still publish it.

Good info about Herring.........

According to the book....adult Herring eat:- Eulachon,Herring, Starry flounder,Ronquil, Sandlance,hake, marbled Sculpin,Rockfish.......these would be all infant and juvenile forms I assume.

View attachment 7306

A great book ~ I have an old copy too. Interestingly on the East coast the collapse of the cod stocks meant a boom for the herring population and it was their large numbers that were theoretically eating all the juvenile cod and preventing a recovery.

 

[Seafever]

I wouldn't be surprised.......as an aside:- This book has recorded catches of species.

They actually caught Striped Seabass off Ecoole in Barkley Sound years back.......

And apparently right around Mistaken Island off Nanoose , Salmon Sharks were routinely caught by sporties.

There are a lot of fish inhabiting our waters , referenced in this book, that I'll bet a lot of people would be dumbfounded to find out about.

 

[bee15]

got my copyfree for turning in a rare fish i caught off bentinck island