One bible story tells how David, a small boy, slew a gigantic soldier named Goliath…a classic tale of big versus little, tall versus short, and brain versus brawn.
In March, a similar scenario plays out in coastal waters. Sunlight increases, warm winds blow and days become luxuriously long. It’s a signal to nature that once again…it’s time to get going. And so it is that the tiny herring along the Pacific Northwest begin their spawning season, and in the process, bless all creatures higher up the food chain with manna from the heavenly seas.
Millions of herring spawn (tiny white eggs) wash onto floating seaweed, forming a tempting caviar buffet that attracts a virtual zoo of marine life. Seabirds, seals, and sea lions crash on over to the feast for a gorging good time.
Herring form the largest biomass in Vancouver Island waters – the most populous fish in our oceans – and their spawn (egg masses of tiny roe) becomes the foundation of all ocean life.
Among the larger marine mammals drawn to the area for the herring feast is our local Steller Sea Lion, with males averaging 544 kg (1,200 lb) and 3.25 (10.7 ft) long.
The California Sea Lion is smaller and darker – but still hefty at 360 kg (850 lb) and 2.4 m (8 ft) in length. These behemoths of the sea really pack on the pounds during the herring spawn.
Avian visitors fly in for the annual herring banquet. Small geese called Brant, on their migration route to Alaska, drop in to feed on eelgrass loaded with herring roe – a banquet that will sustain them for their long upcoming flight.
It’s an aerial circus for the seabirds that fill the air with whirling wings as hundreds of thousands of visiting gulls, scoters, scaup, ducks, goldeneyes and mergansers dive in for a feeding frenzy on herring roe. West coast fishers rush out to sea in herring skiffs to haul in over $30,000 in the few short days allotted to the herring fishery. The roe is a delicacy in Japan.
wildernesswest@shaw.ca
