linking people to nature on Lasqueti and surrounding islands Issue #8, Spring 2016

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Herring - A Troubling Trajectory by Brigitte Dorner

pring is around the corner, and with it the annual Archeological records and oral traditions indicate that spectacle of the herring fleet descending on the herring used to spawn regularly in many places on both Swaters around Qualicum Beach. Chances are that as the east and west side of the . First the ferry approaches French Creek, you will notice Nations gathered both roe and the fish themselves, and the flotilla of boats, birds, seals, and sea lions joined in herring were so popular and plentiful that in some places pursuit of the massive schools of spawners. it was herring, rather than salmon, that was the primary food species. First Nations argue that Like many marine species, herring the disappearance of herring from many don’t get close and personal to mate. prime spawning sites was brought on by The females deposit their eggs on local over-fishing, though DFO does not seaweed or sea grass. The eggs are consider this view consistent with avail- then fertilized by a cloud of sperm able data. Whatever the reason, spawning that turns the water a characteristic in the Strait is now much more concen- opaque milky colour. The larvae trated than it used to be even in the last hatch after 10 to 14 days and devel- half of the 20th century. The bulk of it op into juveniles after 2 – 3 months. now occurs along the stretch of coastline After spending their first summer between Nanaimo and Comox. near shore, the juveniles move into deeper water and eventually join the The western fishery for herring started adult crowd when they reach matu- in 1877 with small drag and beach seine nets. It grew slowly but steadily rity at around 3 years of age. Her- Herring eggs in Boat Cove 2014. Herring ring may live for 10 years or more, supplies 68% of Chinook salmon as more powerful technology was though they are on too many a diet, 61% Coho, and 71% of ling cod employed and markets and fishing menu to make it to a ripe old age diet - which in turn is the main food grounds expanded. Catch rose from very often. of resident orcas. 75t in 1877 to 45,000t in 1920. By Photo SHarrington, source DFO the early 1960s, all areas of BC were While some smaller groups of heavily fished and catches regularly herring stay in inshore waters all year, the majority exceeded 200,000t, almost all of which was reduced to migrate to the nutrient-rich offshore waters of the oil and fishmeal. It is interesting to note that though continental shelf after spring spawning, then gradually these catches seem obscenely large by today’s standards, make their way back inshore over the fall and winter the fishery didn’t appear as an obvious race to the bot- months. Herring stick together in groups during their tom to its contemporaries. Catches were monitored and annual migrations, and they usually return to the same controlled by quota believed sustainable. Nonetheless, spawning sites every year. However, straying rates are stocks collapsed rapidly without much warning in the substantial enough to create plenty of genetic mixing. early 60s. With some notable exceptions, herring bound for the same spawning site therefore do not typically form When stocks were recovering and the fishery was re- genetically distinct populations in the way salmon do. opened in the early 1970s, interest for herring roe in Japan prompted a shift towards roe as the primary current management strategy works well while envi- product. However, whereas in the traditional and ronmental conditions are favourable to herring survival, modern roe fisheries practiced by many First Na- but when conditions take a turn for the worse, we just tions the roe is collected after the eggs are deposited, can’t seem to detect the resulting changes quickly and the seine and gillnet sac roe fishery catches and kills reliably enough to respond adequately. It looks like we the spawners to get at their roe. Thus, herring adults may yet again have to scale down our expectations of continue to be caught and ground down for fishmeal how much we can take from the ocean without trigger- in significant numbers, though the catch levels in the ing unintended consequences. sac roe fishery have stayed well below those seen in the heyday of the reduction fishery. Starting in 1983, Brigitte Dorner – independent fisheries scientist and catch was limited to a maximum of 20% of spawn- member of the Heiltsuk herring team. Brigitte also was ing biomass, and minimum a member of the Lasqueti biomass thresholds were put Island Forage Fish Team. in place to protect the stocks. For more Information: This management strategy [1] DFO herring pages: www. pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/science/ is still in place for most of species-especes/pelagic- BC, and sac roe remains the pelagique/herring-hareng-eng. primary product of the BC html [2] SFU Herring School: www. herring fishery, although the pacificherring.org market for roe has substan- [3] Raincoast Foundation tially deteriorated. coastal food web project: www. raincoast.org/projects/marine- Strait-of-Georgia herring birds/pacific_herring/ are thought to be doing well, A cloud of sperm in Boat Cove with sea lions joining hun- editors note: at least as far as raw num- dreds of gulls and ducks in anticipation of the feast. 2014 Photo S.Harrington Herring are one bers are concerned. DFO The beach at French Creek is often ripe with herring eggs of several forage estimates that there are especially after a storm has ripped up the algae or eelgrass fish which will be somewhere around 100,000t that the eggs are attached to. Often a favourable wind will featured in the of spawners converging take them back out to safety. The Tlingits called this wind coming issues. towards the waters of east- “L’uk’eeti.oosk”, ‘the wind of the washing of the spawn’, which typically arrives shortly after spawning and blows the ern right fertilized eggs off the beaches and allows them to survive. now. Depending on as- Eggs left high and dry on the beach will die or become rich Update on Sea sessment assumptions, this food for animals such as gulls and Brandt geese. (C.Haist) Stars: figure approaches or exceeds record high numbers since A recent scientific formal surveys began in the 1940s. Yet in spite of solid symposium in Seattle on the sea star wasting syn- returns, the spawning remains largely concentrated drome noted that sea stars are getting so hard to find around the east coast of Vancouver Island, suggesting that they are considering listing them as endangered! that perhaps all is not as well as it seems. “No pathogen has ever wiped out its host population Throughout the rest of the province the picture is without being pushed significantly by some other en- bleaker. Fisheries on the West Coast of Vancouver vironmental factor,” explained Ian Hewson, one of the Island, Hakai, and Haida Gwaii had to be closed for scientists at the gathering “This is the single largest, extended periods throughout the past decade. Despite most-geographically widespread marine disease that’s recent signs of recovery, herring numbers remain low ever been recorded.” in much of BC. Consequently, the herring return- ing to our area have become the mainstay of the BC If you see evidence of healthy sea stars, please don’t herring fishery. In 2015, the fishery took 15,600t, the harvest them for your crops, instead, take photos and bulk of it in Area 14 just across from Lasqueti. report their location and condition to: https://www. Recent studies commissioned by DFO confirm the vanaqua.org/act/research/sea-stars conclusions evident in recent stock trajectories. DFO’s Nurture our Pollinators - by Andrew Fall

e depend autumn, new queens emerge to find a place to on insects hibernate, pregnant with their future colony. andW birds that pollinate. With- Sadly, many pollinator species are in population out them, pollen decline [1]. In some parts of the world, industri- would not reach alization has virtually wiped out pollinators. In most flowers, and parts of China orchards are pollinated by hand. the crops of all our fruit, which Decline in honeybees is often in the news, usually include squash, because of colony collapse disorder. Less reported cucumbers and is decline, extirpation and extinction of native peppers, and bee species. Since native bees are unmanaged, even some nuts declines in native bee populations likely represent such as almonds ecosystem degradation – like canaries in a coal would be mini- mine. Declines in bumblebee populations have mal [1]. Pollina- been attributed to a number of causes, including tion is one of the competition and diseases from honeybees [4], loss most important Queen Bees inside Crocus, Photo of flowering habitat, and climate change. Neo- ecosystem services Marie-Ange Fall nicotinoid insecticides have been linked with bee provided by nature. population collapses, as well as declines in some bird Many native plants also depend on pollinators. The co- and bat species. evolution of flowering plants and pollinators has led to a huge diversity of both plants and pollinators in most On Lasqueti, changes in forest cover, reduction in habitat types on the planet. forest fires and grazing by feral sheep over the past century have reduced flowering native plants. People Two species of hummingbirds frequent Lasqueti: have offset some of this loss through planting orchards Anna’s stay here over winter, while Rufous seem able and other flowering plants. Surrounding islands, free to return in spring just as the salmonberries bloom. from browsing sheep, such as Sangster, the Finnerties Butterflies and moths, as well as some species of flies, and Fagan Islands, have a relatively high abundance beetles, wasps, and ants pollinate for us. But, by far, the of flowering native plants. As in many places, there is pollinator heavy-weight champions are the bees [1]. uncertainty regarding the status and trend of local na- There are over 20,000 species of bees worldwide, with tive pollinators. 800 in . How we can help The most endearing bees on Vancouver Island and the are the 14 local species of bumblebees There are a few simple things we can do to encourage [2]. Bumblebees outperform honeybees at pollina- and enhance local native pollinators [3]: tion - they work a longer season and more hours per Provide food day because they can work in colder temperatures, and Grow plants for bees that flower over the entire pollinate a wider variety of plants as they have a wider growing season. Some examples include: [5,6] range of tongue shapes [3]. Solitary queens survive winter in the ground and emerge in early spring. You • Early spring: early-flowering fruit trees (e.g. can see large, gentle queens as early as Feb, seek- stone fruit such as peaches and plums), pussy ing food to build their colony. They construct small willow, rosemary, bog rosemary, daffodils, crocus, hives in the ground, and once their first offspring are bluebells, lungwort, California poppies, phacelia hatched, do not return to the sunlight. Later in spring, • Late spring: raspberries, blueberries, sage, chives you will see larger numbers of smaller workers. In the (left to flower), hyssop, thyme, salvia, geranium, honeysuckle, poppies, wisteria, heather, yarrow • Summer and early fall: Christmas Bird Count Report strawberries, melons, by Sheila Ray blackberries, squash, catmint, mint, roses, sunflowers, We had our first Christmas Bird delphinium, snap-dragons, Count on Lasqueti Island in 1986. lavender, hollyhock, cosmos, There were 15 of us counting that year cornflowers, coneflowers and we saw 39 species, 916 individual (e.g. Echinacea), asters * birds. This was an informal count and Naturescape: in or near we carried on in this way until 2002 your garden, retain or when we became brave enough to join plant patches of wild rose, salal, Oregon grape, the Audubon Christmas Bird Count. salmonberries, sedum We were assigned an official count (stonecrop), oceanspray, circle, and followed their protocols. We columbine, etc. now have our lists scrutinized by the * On your property, retain or professionals and made available to the encourage native flowering world. I don’t think we have missed a trees such as maples, bitter count in thirty years and we have cer- cherry, arbutus and willow tainly improved our birding skills. * Maintain hummingbird feeders (esp. over This year was a pretty average year. 31 participants winter for Anna’s hummingbirds) counted 59 species and 2960 individual birds. Our Provide shelter record is 67 species but I think that was the year Guy * Build a mason bee condo or box for other bee Monty, a well-respected ornithologist, joined us for species the day. Our only new species this year was a Marsh * Leave some patches of exposed mud and clay wren. We had a family of 5 Trumpeter swans up at for queens to build hives Millicheap’s lake. They had been at Weldon Swamp, but * Retain some undisturbed areas near garden for moved to the lake when the swamp froze. 23 Anna’s hives hummingbirds were seen, tied with last year’s high Protect pollinators count. Notably there were no Canada geese and no large * flocks of gulls this year. Perhaps the gulls were all over Protect hummingbirds from cats on the Vancouver Island side because we have certainly * Avoid using insecticides seen them on our way to and from French Creek. * Fence off sheep from as much area as possible The weather was a little of everything. Some of us had Citations snow, there were showers and clear breaks. It was colder [1] 2013. Fight of the Bumblebee. The Walrus, March 2013. Online at: http://thewalrus.ca/fight-of-the-bumblebee/ than usual; shallow lakes and wetlands were frozen. It [2] Bumblebees of Vancouver Island and Gulf Islands. Online was calm enough for a few people to get out in small at: http://metchosinbiodiversity.com/documents/Checklist to the boats. Bumblebees of Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands.pdf [3] Bumblebee Conservation Trust: Online at http://bumble- One always hopes to see a rarity, or an unusually high beeconservation.org/. See section “Gardening for bumble- number of birds, but I think everyone agrees it is nice to bees”. set aside a day to go birding. [4] Goulson, D and KR Sparrow. 2009 Evidence for competition between honeybees and bumblebees; effects on bumblebee To see this and previous years’ results go to http://ne- worker size. Journal of Insect Conservation, 13 (2), pp. 177- tapp.audubon.org/cbcobservation. Our count code is 181. Online at: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?d oi=10.1.1.460.8371&rep=rep1&type=pdf BCLQ. [5] Plants for Bumble Bees. Online at http://homeguides.sfgate. Funding for this issue was generously com/plants-bumble-bees-22412.html provided by [6] Native Plants for Native Bees. Online at http://beefriendly. ca/native-plants-for-native-bees