The Herring Watch Needs You!

Photo Credit Pacific Wild

From eggs to adults Pacific herring provide food for salmon and other flsh, birds, mammals, and people. The Gorge Waterway and Victoria area used to be a hot spot for herring. In fact, Lekwungen, the traditional name of the Esquimalt and Songhees nations, means "people of the smoked herring".

Sadly, over-fishing, habitat loss, pollution, climate change and many other factors have reduced herring numbers to critical levels on much of the coast - in particular in the Gorge.

Monitoring herring spawning and other life stages of the fish, as well as other small "forage" fish, will help improve management and restoration initiatives.