Last year I had the privilege of meeting and working with Dr. Jonn Matsen. Matsen is a highly respected naturopathic doctor on the North Shore, whose work inside the office brings forth miracles of all sorts.
Outside the office isn't much different for this energetic and charismatic doctor. The only difference, in fact, is that instead of working with human patients, he is working with salmon and herring - those shiny silver fish whose role in West Coast ecosystems is integral. His work with herring has inspired communities all throughout the Salish Sea, formerly known as the Strait of Georgia.
Community involvement has spread from Squamish to the Sun-shine Coast. With recent restoration efforts seeing 100 per cent hatch out rates,signs of restoring decimated herring population to healthy historical numbers seem evident.
You would expect Matsen to be happy with these results, looking towards the horizon for a better future to surface. However, this is not the case.
Matsen also co-chairs the Squamish Streamkeepers Society along with the hard-working, dedicated Jack Cooley, whom I also had the privilege of meeting last year. The Squamish Streamkeepers is an organization dedicated to maintaining and enhancing the riparian habitat of local streams so fish, especially salmon (adults, smolts and fry) can navigate streams and successfully spawn.
In addition to their efforts with salmon, they have also been working with herring. In 2005 they made an astonishing discovery in Howe Sound - herring were spawning on creosoted pilings on the east terminal pier. The creosote, they soon realized, was killing the herring roe before they even had a chance to hatch.
After some experimentation, they found that by wrapping weed control material around the pilings, the survival rate increased almost 100 per cent.
In 2008, they discovered that the concrete pilings of the West Terminal were also killing herring roe, and in 2009 they wrapped some of these pilings as well. They have since wrapped more than 200 pilings, hung linear material from one end to the other and suspended a floating material with a lead-lined bottom -anything to prevent the herring from spawning on creosoted pilings.
This year in upper Howe Sound, they have already seen two large spawns, but are expecting the largest spawns to take place this month.
It does not take long for success stories like this to travel. Following this amazing work, many local citizens and organizations from the Lower Mainland to the Gulf Islands to the Sunshine Coast have stepped up to the plate.
The Rotary Club of Pender Harbour has since hung more than 150 metres of what they call "herring curtains" throughout Halfmoon Bay, Secret Cove, Egmont and Pender Harbour. I recently had the privilege of hanging some herring curtains myself only a week ago.
Local naturalist Lee-Ann Ennis phoned me to advise that she had received some material from the Rotary Club, sewed some curtains and was looking for places to set them. Ennis also works for the Iris Griffith Centre and is active in the Sunshine Coast Biological Diversity Project along with many others including the young masters student, Rosalind Patrick, who was also actively involved in this restoration effort. It is a project I am proud to be a part of, and now there are two more herring curtains set in Sargeant Bay and two more in Sechelt Inlet and Porpoise Bay.
Sechelt First Nations Elder Barb Higgins told me Porpoise Bay used to be so full of herring you could catch them with a rake. Today, if you drained the entire bay, you would be lucky to catch much of anything due to poor management, habitat destruction, over fishing and pollution.
In the future, however, because of the valiant efforts of concerned citizens and engaged activists, this ecosystem, along with the rest of the coastal ecosystems, may thrive once again.
Editor's note: See more on this story at www.captainquinn.com.
