The Pender Harbour Rotary Club has been hanging mesh curtains off docks in the harbour to encourage herring egg laying on the curtains.
Typically the herring have been spawning from mid to late March with eggs hatching within a couple of weeks of being laid. They like to spawn where there is good fresh water outflow into the ocean. After the eggs are laid on the creosote dock pilings, they die.
The curtains need to be actively monitored, meaning once a week for cleaning, until mid-March and then twice a week for the next couple of weeks. Once eggs show up, there is no cleaning until the eggs hatch. As of April 1, there were still lots of eggs with active herring larvae waiting to hatch. The eggs are about a millimetre diameter. After a week or so the eggs that are alive are clear and soon eyes can be seen with a magnifying glass.
– Submitted
