Forage fish are super-abundant schooling fishes such as herring, anchovy, sand lance, surf smelt, sardine, capelin and eulachon. These small fish are "forage" or "prey" for hundreds of species from birds, marine mammals and fish.
Being the cornerstone of the marine food web, forage fish are the most important fish in the sea. They connect food energy from zooplankton to their predators. These predators (salmon, lingcod and rockfish, etc.) are prey for larger animals, such as sea lions and killer whales.
Our group of volunteers have so far successfully located sand lance spawn sites in three areas on the Sunshine Coast - in Davis Bay, Bonniebrook and Gibsons Creek.
"We are now sampling to establish presence of surf smelt spawn areas. Our goal is to provide education and training for volunteers and to sample likely spawn sites over several seasons," said Dianne Sanford, co-ordinator of Friends of Forage Fish.
A workshop is coming up this Sunday, June 20, from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Chaster House in Bonniebrook. There will be a presentation by Ramona DeGraaf BSc, MSc, the co-ordinator for volunteer forage fish sampling groups n coastal B.C. This will take place from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. at the beach just west of Chaster House to learn and refresh sampling techniques, reconvening at Chaster House at noon to 5 p.m. with a presentation on forage fish, sampling and spawning habitats.
All are welcome to this free session. For more information, call Sanford at 604-885-6283 or email moonstone@dccnet.com.
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