The Sunshine Coast Friends of Forage Fish volunteer group is reminding the public – especially gardeners – that herring spawn season is upon us, and herring are one of the forage fish species.
Forage fish are abundant, schooling fishes and include herring, anchovies, smelt, sand lance and more. They are an essential component of marine ecosystems, providing critical food sources for many birds and for larger fish such as salmon and ling cod, which in turn are eaten by marine mammals such as sea lions and orcas.
Surf smelt and sand lance use the intertidal zone of the beach to spawn during high tides. These tough little eggs are able to survive with just the moisture in the sand during low tides.
Anchovy are pelagic spawners (in the water column) but may be seen from time to time close to the shore, causing a feeding frenzy among seals, sea lions, otters, gulls, diving ducks and other shore birds.
Herring are a popular food fish for wildlife and humans alike. Herring utilize the seaweeds and eelgrasses offshore to spawn. They attach their eggs to these plants, and during storms and surging tides, the plants laden with herring eggs are sometimes washed on to shore.
This material can form great piles in the high tide zone of the beach. This is favoured by people for mulch for their gardens. As a practice, mulching is great, but when one chooses seaweed as a mulch, a series of thoughtful decisions should be made beforehand.
First of all, what is the time of year? February and March are herring spawning months on the Coast, and herring will often choose seaweeds as the anchor for their eggs. Even when the egg-laden seaweed gets broken off and washed up on the beach, those eggs can quite happily survive until the next high tide.
By taking seaweeds during the spawning season, there is the potential to destroy thousands of herring eggs. None should be collected at this time.
How much to take, and how often? There are a lot of us in the world now, including the Sunshine Coast, and our cumulative impact is significant. That seaweed line is home to many small sea creatures and provides shelter, shade and moisture between the tidal periods. Do you really need seaweed for a mulch?
Is there something with less impact you can use to mulch? Many of us throw out great mulch materials like grass clippings, compost or sawdust. Why not use them?
If you must collect seaweed as mulch for your garden, take only small amounts and over a large area to minimize the impact on this special area of our world, and not during the months of February and March.
The Sunshine Coast Friends of Forage Fish is a local volunteer group that has been diligently sampling beaches for the presence of forage fish eggs. We have had findings of sand lance and surf smelt eggs at several local beaches.
For more information or to volunteer, call Dianne Sanford, volunteer coordinator, Sunshine Coast Friends of Forage Fish, 604-885-6283, or email [email protected]. For more information about the group, see www.friendsofforagefish.com
– Submitted
