Simon Fraser University Professor Anne Salomon is working with a team of students, scientists, and the Heiltsuk First Nation to understand the causes and consequences of herring decline.

Each spring small fish called herring make their own great migration from the deep ocean to BC’s coast. Anne Salomon, a professor at Simon Fraser University, a team of students, scientists, and the Heiltsuk First Nation take advantage of this opportunity to study the little guys. They are investigating why herring populations have declined and what the consequences are for coastal ecosystems and communities.

Herring migrate to spawn in sheltered bays like those along the coast around Bella Bella, B.C. The spawn creates a feast for other animals in the ecosystem like eagles, rockfish, and sea lions that rely on herring and their eggs, or roe, for nutrients. Herring are also an important part of the Heiltsuk peoples’ culture.

To find out how much herring roe fuels the ecosystem and how this has changed through time, Salomon and team worked closely with Heiltsuk Elders to learn about changes in herring spawning habits. By boat,  they collected different animals that eat roe and took tissue samples. “We also dove under the ocean and placed cameras in some sites to look at what predators were eating the roe,” Salomon says.

Salomon’s favourite part of the project has been working with the Heiltsuk people, students, and research collaborators. “By weaving our different kinds of knowledge together, we’ve learnt so much more,” she says.

 

 

Simon Fraser University students researching Pacific herring in Bella Bella, B.C. share their research with students from the local highschool.

Click here to read about the fieldwork students are doing for this project.