Herring spawning nets prove to be huge success

A B.C. conservationist says artificial herring-spawning nets installed in Vancouver have brought remarkable results this year.

Six years ago, Jonn Matsen of the Squamish Streamkeepers Society and his group hung 2.8-squaremetre, artificial spawning nets from Fisherman’s Wharf in False Creek, after seeing dead herring eggs attached to the creosotesoaked pilings that had taken place of local eelgrass beds when the dock was built.

This is a ‘ billion year’ for us and the growth is beyond our expectation. We thought we wouldn’t have a billion for a couple more years.

In January of this year, 300 million of the plankton-feeding fish hatched and in February, another 300 million hatched from a second wave of spawning.

“We thought that would be the end of it, but we got 700 million eggs in March and there was still a school of herring looking to spawn yesterday,” said Matsen, shortly after inspecting the nets on Saturday.

“This is a ‘billion year’ for us and the growth is beyond our expectation. We thought we wouldn’t have a billion for a couple more years.”

Some eggs will die off because they were laid on top of other eggs, and recent warm weather will kill others. But Matsen hopes that three years from now, during the next spawning season, they’ll see a massive return.

Matsen said his group helped bring a return of herring stock in Howe Sound more than a decade ago. In 2014, hundreds of dolphins came into the Squamish harbour to dine on those fish but then became food themselves when dozens of orcas followed, he said.

“We realized we’d stumbled upon something magic and, of course, the chinook fishing in Howe Sound has been dramatically better since we did that,” he said.

“Hopefully, in the next couple years, we’ll see the dolphin and orca show in False Creek.”