Pacific Herring - the Forgotten Jonas Brother of the Salish Sea

Ctedit: Wikimedia

These unassuming fish are often left out of conservation conversations, but continuing to ignore their needs will have cascading effects through the entire region.

by Kaitlan Harbaugh

            The Salish Sea: a range of coastal waterways stretching from the southwestern region of British Columbia through Puget Sound in Washington. This diverse waterway is home to many notable species like killer whales, salmon, and harbor seals. All of these species are foundational to Pacific Northwest culture and are known worldwide.

The Jonas Brothers: a musical group of brothers that got their start with Disney. They have sold millions of albums worldwide and headlined several tours. The brothers, Joe, Nick, and Kevin Jonas, have gained global popularity through their music, acting, and reality TV show.

         Despite being very different, the Salish Sea and the Jonas Brothers both have one thing in common. There is another member – important but left out of promotional flyers – that is largely forgotten. For the Jonas Brothers, it is their younger brother Frankie, who is equally related to but not nearly as famous as the core trio. In the Salish Sea, it is the Pacific herring.

The Pacific herring, Clupea pallasii, is a species of herring native to both the eastern and western edges of the Pacific Ocean. They are incalculably important to the region; they support almost every predatory species either directly or indirectly throughout the Salish Sea and are deeply integrated into PNW culture. These small, schooling fish were significant as far back as when the first people arrived in the region. Archaeological digs have revealed large quantities of herring bones, indicating that this species was historically very abundant. After the arrival of colonists, more and more records describe the herring’s impact on the region.

The mid 1800s ushered in the beginnings of mass herring consumption up and down the west coast; Bay Area newspapers described smoked herring brought all the way from Washington Territory. However, within a few decades, the narrative transitioned from vast numbers of  herring to evidence of greater depletion of populations. Finger pointing started immediately; Italian fishermen, sawdust dumping, and poor harvesting practices were blamed as the main culprits of the depressed population sizes. Increased awareness led to the first regulation of herring; in 1915, Washington state passed laws to protect important spawning grounds as reserves.

In the following decades, Pacific herring continued to go through cycles of population recovery and crashes, resulting in more and more fisheries closing through the 1900s. Currently, there is only one herring fishery in Puget Sound, and no tribal fisheries. Indigenous people remain fishing in limited capacity on the local beaches. The Pacific herring in the Puget Sound are being closely monitored, but the populations further north are facing potential problems.

There are many groups that have voiced concerns about the future of the Pacific herring. Many First Nations peoples in British Columbia have been protesting the opening of herring fisheries due to the fact that the populations have not achieved sustainable levels. Some fisheries have been moving toward management strategies that work with First Nations peoples to build sustainable infrastructure, but ongoing protests indicate that more progress must be made. Despite the high levels of concern from groups critiquing the fisheries, Pacific herring have not yet reached the point of no return.

Assessments of the herring stock throughout the Salish Sea have found that populations are still at levels that can bounce back. Groups like the Ocean Modeling Forum are investigating the factors that are limiting the herring’s growth in order to implement more informed fishery management strategies. Proposed theories for the continued low-levels of stock include limitations to herring productivity, increased predation, and human overfishing, but none of these hypotheses are confirmed. Further research from dedicated organizations and traditional knowledge of herring fishing will enable current fisheries to make more informed decisions regarding harvest limits and ecosystem maintenance.

All the herring need is better management in order to save their species. There are many groups advocating for informed management of operational fisheries and policy restrictions for any new fisheries, fighting to make sure Pacific herring are represented as an important aspect of the Salish Sea. Maybe if Frankie Jonas gets better management, he too can become famous.