THE MULTITUDINOUS PACIFIC HERRING

by D. N. OUTRAM FISHERIES RESEARCH BOARD OF CANADA BIOLOGICAL STATION, NANAIMO, B. C. CIRCULAR NO. 6 3^*u DECEMBER, 1961 COVER PHOTOGRAPH: A mountain of herring covers the storage bin area of the reduction plant at Imperial Cannery, Steveston, B„ C„, awaiting processing into fish meal and oil. Photographs by Mr. C. Morley. THE MULTITUDINOUS PACIFIC HERRING

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Vast Shoals of Protein-Rich Herring Rove the Temperate Coastal Waters Along Canada's Western Seabord N V By Donald N, Outram y ^v- _•• HISTORICAL BACKGROUND annually. While this fishery is.

Fabulous numbers of herring first in landed weight and second

(Fig. l) are found along the sea- to salmon in landed value, it is washed shores of Canada's most wes only worth about one-quarter as much terly province, Their migrations, as the salmon catch. their sudden abundance and their Fluctuations in the world price straggle to survive is an exciting of fish meal and oil cause the market study. Undoubtedly, herring were one value at about ten million dollars to of the first coastal fishes to be vary from year to year, utilized by man. In northern Europe, FISHING FOR HERRING particularly, they have been a source The British Columbia herring of food since before written history. fishery is a highly organized opera Herring and herring roe have been an tion utilizing modern shore plants and article of food or barter of the efficient fishing vessels . The seventy- coastal Indian tribes of British Col to eighty-foot long seine boats are umbia for ma.ny centuries, They were equipped with the very latest electronic not fished, however, on a commercial fish-detecting equipment, enabling the basis until 1877 when 75 tons were fishermen to "see" the shoals before caught. setting the net (Fig, 2). In some Today, in British Columbia, about areas the eighty vessel fishing fleet 200,000 tons of herring are caught may use powerful blue-tinted lights

to attract fish schools. to

Figo 1. HERRING PROFILES. Pacific herring (Clupea pallasi) characteristically travel in large schools. The silvery, eight-inch long adult herring shown above weigh about three ounzes, somewhat smaller than the closely related Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus)0 To the lower left in the photo a three-inch long, four month old juvenile herring can be seen.

' \ Purse seining has been the dom along the Vancouver Island shoreline. inant method of harvesting the her On the east coast the best localities ring crop since 1910. The 275-fathom are off Campbell River, off Comox and long net encircles a school of herring amongst the "Gulf Islands" between and a purse line closes off the bottom Nanaimo and Victoria and on the west like a draw string to prevent herring coast in Barkley Sound, in Nootka Sound from escaping. and in Esperanza Inlet, In central

Sets average about 70 tons but British Columbia herring are caught catches up to 300 tons or about three in the channels near Bella Bella and million herring are not uncommon. The in northern British Columbia around largest catches by a single net ever the islands south of Prince Rupert. recorded were 1260 tons from Ogden Considerable catches are sometimes

Channel near Prince Rupert in 1950 made along the lower east coast of the and 1150 tons off Comox in 1949. The Queen Charlotte Islands. former was made by the seiner "Maple Fish caught in southern British

Leaf C", the latter by the seiner Columbia are generally processed at

"Western Ranger". The captured her Steveston near Vancouver while those ring are scooped two tons at a time captured in central and northern Bri with a giant dipnet or brailer into tish Columbia are delivered to shore the hold of the fishing vessel (Fig, plants in Prince Rupert and Namu, south

3) and conveyed rapidly to the shore of Bella Bella. plants. Some herring are also caught At the shore plants herring are by mid-water trawls and a few, to unloaded by a giant suction hose into supply the fresh fish market, by giU- storage bins to a.wait processing into nets. fish meal and oil (Fig. 4). The her

DESTINY OF CAPTURED HERRING ring harvest of British Columbia is

In southern British Columbia the not utilized directly for human con most prolific fishing grounds are sumption but rather forms a protein

- 3 - Pig, 2. SEARCHING FOR HERRING,, The electronic fish-finder (echo-sounder) sends high-freq uency sound waves downwards be low the vessel's keel (A). These sound waves bounce back from the solid sea floor and from objects in between, schools of fish, for example. The re flected waves are displayed in the form of a graph similar to the one shown below. This is an actual record of a school of winter herring in Satellite Chan A. nel, one of the major herring SOUND WAV fishing grounds in the Ste of EMANATING FROM ] Georgia. A school of herring (B) KEEL OF FISHING, is undergoing the characteristic VESSEL nightly rise from the sea floor (C) toward a catchable depth of 30 fathoms. If a seine net was set a- round this body of fish a sub stantial catch could be expect ed o Because the echo-sounder enables Pacific Coast fishermen to "see" fish before setting the net this electronic instru-^ ment is almost as important nowadays as the main engine.

B. CLOUDLIKE AREA IN MID- WATER IS IMAGE OF DENSE SHOAL OF WINTER HERRING /

_ CONTOUR OF SEA-BED IN SATELLITE CHAN SHOWING DEEP 50 FATHOM t MOLE

- 4 - and mineral rich supplement in the broad, are imprinted with annual rings diet of poultry, pigs and mink. The that can be used to tell the age of a

edible fish oil is shipped by rail herring (Fig. 6). In British Columbia and truck to markets in Canada and the herring catches are composed mainly the United States for use in the man of fish that are three and four years ufacture of soaps, paints and cooking of age. If there were no fishery some compounds. Only five per cent of the herring would grow to be quite old. total herring catch is used for human The oldest herring on record, caught sustenance either canned, salted, several years ago near Prince Rupert, pickled or fresh. was over fifteen years old.

PROFILE OF A HERRING SPAWNING PILGRIMAGE

Pacific coast herring are bony To fulfill the instinct to repro fish (Fig. 5) about nine inches long duce their species the herring legions with blue-green backs shading away to undertake long spawning pilgrimages silvery white on the sides. The mouth each year. In the fall, they leave is large with a slightly projecting the rich offshore feeding grounds above lower jaw; the tail is deeply forked. the continental shelf and migrate to

They are graceful but somewhat nervous inshore waters. Here, they form in swimmers, characteristically travel dense schools awaiting the ripening ling in large shoals. They are grouped of their reproductive organs. It is scientifically in the Family Clupeidae, during this winter resting phase that to which also belong such other closely the fishermen intervene to make their

related Pacific coast species as the catches. Spawning takes place along

pilchard (California sardine), the the shore in early spring.

shad and the anchovy. UNUSUAL SPAWNING HABITS Iridescent, loosely attached For a few hours each spring her scales, about one-quarter of an inch ring leave the ocean depths and crowd

- 5 - Fig. 3. HERRING HARVEST. The 70-80 foot fishing vessels may make catches of 100 tons or more. The silvery fish are transferred or brailed two tons at a time with a giant dip net into the hold of the fish boat.

Fig. 4. SACKED FISH. Herring are not utilized directly as food by man. Only five per cent of the total British Col umbia catch is canned, salted, pickled or sold freshj the remaining ninety-five per cent is processed into fish meal and fish oil. Sacks of fish meal like those in the figure are shipped by truck across the con tinent to markets in the United States and Canada.

- 6 - onto the beaches in vast numbers to are fastened to moist seaweed many perpetuate their race. Although male thousands of eggs are destroyed. and female are present in equal num Storms frequently annihilate whole bers on the spawning ground there is spawnings. Seagulls and diving ducks no "pairing off" during the spawning are attracted in large flocks to the act. Females discharge sticky eggs spawning beaches, first to feed on on green eel grass and brown rockweed, the spawners and then on the spawn japweed and kelp (Fig. 7). The males left exposed at low tide. Mortality shed milt into the surrounding water during the egg stage may amount to as turning it milky and opaque for miles much as 70-80 per cent. (Fig. 8). During the 196l spawning FRAGILE INFANT HERRING season, over 186 miles of spawn were By late April the sea lanes are deposited on 132 spawning sites along populated with tremendous numbers of the 17,000 miles of British Columbia newly hatched, almost invisible her shoreline. After spawning, the spent ring larvae. These fragile, thread fish return offshore to feed in scat like one-quarter-inch long infant her tered schools. ring (Fig. 9) bear as much resemblance An average-sized herring deposits to the adult fish as a stickleback about 20,000 eggs each year. The does to a shark. They lack scales, transparent eggs are less than one- the head and black eyes are greatly sixteenth of an inch in diameter and enlarged and they can barely swim. one square inch of seaweed may be Two months later when about one and covered with as many as one thousand one-half inches long they will have eggs. After a sixteen-day incubation undergone a gradual metamorphosis that period the embryonic fish finally changed their outward appearance into break out of the confining egg mem that of a miniature adult herring. branes and drift away.

During the brief period that they

- 7 - Fig. 5. HERRING BONES. The skel etal remains of a Pacific herring. The fine bone structure detracts from the appeal of herring as food on the fresh fish markets.

SUMMED. ZONES WINTEP PINGS

Fig. 6. HERRING REVEAL AGEo The markings or rings shown above on the enlarged half-scale from a herring indicate that this fish was seven years old when caughto In most regions of British Columbia, however, over eighty-five per cent of the fishable schools con sist of herring that are three and four years of age. The oldest herring on record was a fifteen year old fish caught several years ago in Ogden Channel, thirty miles south of Prince Rupert.

- 8 - Fig. 7o EGGS UNLIMITED. Eel grass beds at Nanoose Bay covered with herring spawn for as far as the eye can see. Herring swarm on to the beaches in March, the females depositing adhesive eggs on seaweedso The upper right-hand corner inset shows a group of transparent herring eggs (enlarged 15 times). Note the en ormous black eyes of the embryos and of the newly-hatched, infant herring.

Fig. 8. WHITE WATER FROM A HER RING SPAWNING. Part of a two mile herring spawning in progress along the shore at Coffin Point near Lady- smith . Patches of water, like clouds, are turned white and opaque by the mass emis sion of the sperm- laden milt.

- 9 - PINT-SIZED JUVENILES RESEARCH AND REGULATIONS

After schooling up, the infant Herring research has shown that herring now known as juveniles can two types of herring stocks exist in be found frequenting kelp beds for the coastal waters of British Columbia; protection during the summer months. major migratory stocks and minor resi

These sardine-sized fish are raked by dent stocks, the latter present in sports fishermen for use as live bait local waters all year round. A twenty- when trolling for salmon. Occasion year herring tagging program carried ally, a small fishery for these juv out by the Biological Station, Fisheries eniles takes place but the schools Research Board of Canada, Nanaimo, of young herring have never been B. C, (Fig. 10) has indicated that exploited to the extent of those there are at least nine relatively along the Atlantic seaboard and in separate migratory herring populations the Gulf of Maine. along the coast.

In October, when about 4 inches Present day efforts are designed long, juvenile herring normally for to provide a scientific basis for a sake their shallow-water haunts and management program that will allow move seawards into deeper waters. the greatest possible catch from all

Their survivors will return in the populations. In the continuing pro fishable stocks mostly as mature, gram emphasis is placed on compilation three-year-old herring. They will of catch statistics, sampling for age, continue to return each year in the length and maturity, estimating spawn spawning runs for the remainder of abundance and echo-sounding surveys. their life span. Little information The analysis of these data provides exists with respect to the distribu information on the level of abundance tion and abundance of immature herring of each population and on the relation between the time they leave shallow ship between the size of the spawning water and the time they return as stock (measured by the amount of spawn adult fish. deposited) and the resulting number

- 10 - Fig. 9. INFANT HERRING. The fragile, transparent appearance of larval her- is illustrated by the two greatly enlarged young shown above. These one-quarter-inch long, infant fish with yolk sac attached lack scales and can barely swim. As ocean currents sweep them gradually away from the nursery areas they undergo awesome casualties from predation and starvation. In the upper left corner a full length sketch of a herring larva is shown. I

M 10

10. RESEARCH CENTRE. The Fisheries Research Board of Canada's Biological Station on the shores of Departure Bay near Nanaimo. From small beginnings in 1908 it has now become one of the lar gest research units in the Pacific area. All phases of fish and invertebrate biology are covered including studies of the growth, reproduction, predation, behaviour and catchability of many species. of recruits to the fishable schools HUNTER AND HUNTED

(year-class strength). Pacific herring are almost entirely

The British Columbia herring lacking in either defensive or offen fishery is regulated through the Fed sive abilities, consequently, they are eral Department of Fisheries by a com more preyed upon than any other species bination of closed areas, closed sea of coastal fish. Their perpetuation sons and catch quotas. The closed is dependent upon their abundance. At season extending from February 5 to all stages of their life span herring

May 1 in southern British Columbia as form a basic food supply in the econ designed to protect the fish at spawn omy of the coastal waters of the north ing time when they are massed close eastern Pacific Ocean. Many fisher to shore. By mutual agreement, a men think adequate stocks of herring

48-hour closure period occurs each are necessary to sustain important weekend as well as a 3-week shut-down food fishes such as coho and spring over Christmas. However, control of salmon. However, available biologi the fishery is provided principally cal evidence suggests that perhaps by a system of catch quotas applied these fish could subsist on alterna to most of the ma.jor herring populav-' tive foods should herring abundance tions. Thus, 40,000 tons of herring ever reach very low levels. may be taken each year from the her Herring are eaten by a whole con ring population off the lower east stellation of creatures. Eggs are

coast of Vancouver Island. If sur consumed by many kinds of sea birds, veys by patrol vessels of the Depart larvae by numerous invertebrates and ment of Fisheries (Fig. 11) and bio older herring by sea lions, lingcod, logical evidence indicate fish are dogfish and salmon. It is truly unusually abundant, extensions to astonishing that any individuals live quotas are usually granted. long enough to reproduce their kind.

- 13 - Fig. llo FISH GUARDIAN. The fishery patrol vessel "Atlin Post" docked at Nanaimoj B.C. Vessels of this type are used to facilitate the regulation and management of renewable, marine resources like salmon, herring, cod, halibut and shellfish. Regulations pertain ing to coastal fisheries are made by federal authorities. Aft the patrol vessel can be seen the fifty-four feet research trawler "Investigator No. 1"0

Crab larva Copepod

Euphausiid shrimp (red feed)

Fig. 12. PLANKTONIC FISH FOOD. Herring do not prey on other fish but feed on swarms of tiny, almost invisible sea organisms collective ly called zooplankton. If the stomach contents of a Pacific her ring were to be examined the chief articles of food present would undoubtedly be amphipods, copepods and shrimplike euphausiids (red feed). The latter two categories of sea life (enlarged 3 times) are pictured above together with a larval crab.

- 14 - In turn, herring feed on flea- calamities affecting the numbers of sized organisms, such as copepods, herring in the ocean are probably of amphipods and the young, free-swimming much greater significance than man's stages of barnacles and crabs (Fig. effect on the stocks. Only one her

12). This diet is supplemented in ring from 10,000 eggs is destined to the summer months with euphausiid return to spawn. In spite of this shrimps, known locally as red feed. seemingly high mortality, herring exist

Herring food forms part of the cate in fabulous numbers in the temperate gory of ocean life known as zooplank- waters off Canada's western seaboard. ton or animal plankton. The zoo- This region supports a vast reservoir plankton organisms rise nightly of minerals, proteins and vitamins towards the sea surface and descend that is renewable year after year with again at dawn to avoid the intense very little help from man. Herring daylight. Because herring are zoo- clothe themselves, feed themselves and plankton feeders they also exhibit a perpetuate themselves. Today this similar up and down movement. The natural resource is utilized only to fishing fleets utilize this character a limited extent directly for the istic upward, nocturnal swim to bring sustenance of the shoredwellers. No the herring shoals within reach of doubt a time will come when Pacific their nets. coast herring stocks will prove to be

an invaluable food source in a world A RENEWABLE COMMODITY of rapidly increasing population. The survival of herring is a stimulating study. The natural

- 15 - ROGER DUHAMEL. F.R.S.C. QUEEN'S PRINTER AND CONTROLLER OF STATIONERY OTTAWA. 1961