Herring Enhancement Program
The Rotary clubs on the Sunshine Coast have been dropping herring curtains off docks for 10 years to assist the herring spawn to hatch and continue to feed the salmon in these waters. Acting as artificial nurseries for the herring roe, our curtains temporarily replace eelgrass and kelp beds which have been basically decimated by climate change, until such time as restoration of natural kelp and eelgrass takes place.
We have worked with LeeAnn Ennis through her company Vital Kelp, assisting in the laboratory where baby kelp are being raised, and later transferred to the ocean where each is attached to underground rope to adjust and grow. It is hoped that these mature kelp plants can be successfully transplanted to appropriate locations to restore the natural spawning areas for forage fish and other marine life.
Although Rotary's Herring Enhancement Program (HEP) is essentially a seasonal project, in the off season we busy ourselves with cleaning the last year curtains, and explore ways to build ones with natural materials, so we are reducing the chance of more micro plastics being added to ocean water. To this end we are replacing the perforated PVC piping, which supports most of the curtains, with driftwood branches instead. Leadcore, which weights the curtains in the water to keep the curtains hanging vertically, is being replaced by hanging beach rocks.
In June 2023, in conjunction with World Oceans Day and the Sunshine Coast Conservation Association, we presented an active workshop at Davis Bay, helping participants to build a number of herring curtains and show them how important they are to help herring roe survive. We shared a video and gave out pamphlets to educate and encourage their participation in the Herring Enhancement Program and as well to ask that seaweed not to be removed from beaches during spawn season, and to refrain from walking on seaweed during this time, so that the maximum number of roe may hatch out and make their way to sea.
Having worked hard over the past decade to help bring back the herring numbers, we are very clear about our position on the overfishing of roe in the Salish Sea. DFO science shows that the roe fishery is not currently sustainable; therefore the way forward is crystal clear to us. We support a Roe Fishery Moratorium until the herring populations are strong enough to create a sustainable fishery..