Kai Muir: "Herring Historical Ecology in the Strait of Georgia"

0:14

Welcome everybody to this talk which is

0:17

part of our speakers series uh that's

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hosted by the chair in transgender

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studies. We're really glad that you

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could join us. So for those who haven't

0:26

met me before, my name is Aaron Deore

0:28

and I'm the founder of the chair in

0:30

transgender studies and the transgender

0:32

archives and the moving transistory

0:34

forward conferences. So uh we're coming

0:36

to you from the University of Victoria

0:38

and we'll start with a territorial

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acknowledgement.

0:41

So we acknowledge and respect the

0:45

Lquangan uh Sonheis peoples on whose

0:48

territory the University of Victoria

0:50

stands and the Lquangan and Lanage

0:53

peoples whose historical relationships

0:55

with the land continue to this day. From

0:58

me the only further thing I want to say

1:00

is to introduce our speaker and S Kai

1:04

Mure is an environmental studies MSC

1:07

student in the ocean history lab at UIC.

1:11

His master's research is focused on

1:13

assessing the potential of historical

1:15

biological surveys and industry

1:18

periodicals to inform modern management

1:21

of Pacific herring stocks in the state

1:23

of Georgia. This is his second major

1:25

research project with the ocean history

1:27

lab. In 2023, he completed an

1:29

undergraduate geography honors thesis,

1:32

quantifying the catch of Pacific cod in

1:35

the Gulf of Alaska throughout the rise

1:37

and fall of the early 20th century salt

1:40

cod industry. Outside of his historical

1:42

research, Kai enjoys spending time in

1:44

the field volunteering for local marine

1:47

monitoring initiatives. So, the title is

1:50

Herring Historical Ecology in the Strait

1:53

of Georgia. And I'm now going to turn it

1:55

over to Kai.

1:57

>> Thank you everyone for attending today

2:00

and uh to Dr. D'vor and the trans chair

2:03

program for making this opportunity

2:04

available and for um to Jay for all of

2:08

their hard work organizing this session.

2:10

So as Dr. D'vor said today I'm going to

2:13

be presenting on my thesis topic which

2:15

is Pacific herring historical ecology in

2:18

the straight of Georgia. And I'm in the

2:20

second year of my master's project. And

2:23

this project is ongoing. So over the

2:26

past couple of months, some pieces have

2:29

progressed a bit faster than others. And

2:31

what I'll be presenting today is a

2:33

little different in some in some aspects

2:36

from the abstract that was originally

2:38

circulated. So if there's anything that

2:40

I don't cover here that you were really

2:42

like hoping to learn more about, I'm

2:45

super happy to talk about that during

2:47

the questions at the end. I have around

2:50

45 minutes of material to cover and I'll

2:53

stick around after that to answer

2:55

questions.

2:57

So my presentation today has three

3:01

sections. The first of which is the

3:04

eocultural context of Pacific herring.

3:07

I'll be discussing the commercial

3:09

fishery including related conservation

3:12

concerns as well as that ecoultural

3:14

background.

3:17

And then I'm going to move into

3:20

a discussion of the existing historical

3:23

research on Pacific herring that frames

3:26

the research gap which my thesis aims to

3:28

address. And finally, I'll cover my

3:31

original research which really looks at

3:34

archival sources and historical trends

3:37

and comparative analyses that are made

3:40

possible through the information in

3:42

those sources.

3:44

So I'll move into that first section on

3:47

the ecoultural context of Pacific

3:49

herring and the commercial fishery and

3:52

just start us off with some quick

3:54

herring facts. So in BC we have Pacific

3:58

herring which are a member of family cla

4:02

oily fish and unlike salmon they're

4:05

repeat spawners so they spawn annually

4:08

after reaching sexual maturity around 3

4:10

years of age. It's very rare for herring

4:13

to die of old age because of predation

4:15

and fishing pressure, but in

4:17

extraordinary cases, they can actually

4:19

reach their teens. So, they're perhaps

4:21

surprisingly longived. Um, for those

4:25

unfamiliar with with herring and in the

4:28

straight of Georgia, most herring are

4:31

migratory. Sorry, there's just a bit of

4:33

a delay on my slides. There we go. So in

4:35

the straight of Georgia, most herring

4:38

are migratory and they spend the summer

4:41

in the deep waters off of the west coast

4:43

of Vancouver Island. And then they

4:45

return to the straight of Georgia in

4:47

November through December and spawn in

4:49

February through early April.

4:55

And herring are an absolutely critical

4:57

link in the food web between zup

5:00

plankton and larger predators. When

5:02

they're consumed by a predator, they

5:04

transfer this energy gleaned from zup

5:06

plankton up the food web, making it

5:09

available to marine mammals, piscorus,

5:12

so fish eating fishes and seabirds.

5:17

And in the straight of Georgia region,

5:19

young herring are especially critical

5:21

prey to shinook salmon. Recent research

5:24

by the Pacific Salmon Foundation has

5:27

shown that 86.7%

5:29

of a typical summer shinook salmon diet

5:31

is actually composed of young herring.

5:38

So right now we're in the middle of

5:39

herring spawning season. Pacific herring

5:42

are really known and celebrated for

5:44

their their annual spawning events. I

5:46

was actually just at Hornbe Island

5:48

spawning or sorry, Hornby Island

5:50

herringfest, which coincides with the

5:52

Hornby Island spawning period.

5:56

And at spawning time, females lay their

5:59

row on macroites, so seaweed and eel

6:01

grasses. And the males will congregate

6:04

in the nearshore environment and release

6:06

melt that turns the water this really

6:08

characteristic turquoise color. The

6:10

dense schools of herring at spawning

6:12

time will attract droves of predators

6:15

and even shape migratory behavior for

6:17

some species like sea lions and ski surf

6:20

scotters which are a diving duck. And

6:23

much like salmon do for the forest when

6:25

they spawn, herring spawns actually

6:27

fertilize the coast by bringing an

6:29

influx of nutrients to the intertidal

6:31

environment. Work by Dr. Caroline Fox

6:34

and collaborators has demonstrated that

6:37

increased nitrogen 15 is present in

6:39

seaggrasses, seaweeds, and invertebrates

6:42

after exposure to a herring spawn,

6:44

showing how ecologically interconnected

6:47

this natural phenomenon is.

6:52

In the Straight of Georgia region,

6:53

herring are not only ecological

6:55

keystones, but they're also cultural

6:57

keystone species for indigenous nations

7:00

in that they form the contextual

7:01

underpinning of co coastal cultures due

7:04

to their centrality in food systems, in

7:07

trade, and in governance. So, at UIC,

7:11

we're on territory known in relationship

7:13

to herring, as lungan translates as

7:16

place to smoke herring. And this photo

7:18

from 1868 shows a llungan herring

7:21

fishing site at what is now known as a

7:23

squyalt harbor which supported a herring

7:25

run into the 1970s.

7:29

In addition to smoked and dried herring,

7:32

herring row collected on cedar or

7:34

hemlock boughs placed in water has been

7:36

a key food and trade good for millennia.

7:40

and indigenous practices of herring

7:42

harvest and stewardship continue to be

7:45

exercised where possible, but declining

7:47

access to herring has really jeopardized

7:49

to the continuation of these practices.

7:52

Two short films released in 2024 by the

7:55

Kolhana Mutsum Aquatic Resources Society

7:58

feature Ray Harris, a Sheimenus First

8:00

Nation member and Velma Crocker, a

8:03

Panelicquette First Nation member,

8:05

demonstrating herring harvesting and

8:07

preserving methods that can no longer be

8:09

consistently practiced on their

8:11

territories due to local decreases in

8:13

herring. Um maybe I'll share the link to

8:15

these videos at the end of the talk

8:17

because they're beautifully made and

8:19

just absolutely excellent resources.

8:25

So here on the South Island, the

8:28

Wasanich hereditary chiefs have been

8:30

extremely active in raising awareness of

8:33

local declines in herring access on

8:35

their territories and in advocating for

8:37

a fishing moratorium in the state of

8:39

Georgia. And the federal survey data is

8:42

aligned with their observations of

8:44

declining herring in that federal spawn

8:47

index records show that spawning events

8:49

around the Sanage Peninsula and Gulf

8:51

Islands have really become increasingly

8:53

rare over the past 50 years.

8:57

If a herring moratorium in the straight

8:59

of Georgia were to be implemented, this

9:02

would result in the closure of nearly

9:04

all commercial fishing for herring in

9:06

BC. And this is because over 80% of the

9:10

fishing quota for herring in the

9:12

province is within the straight of

9:13

Georgia fishing district.

9:16

And the reason for that allocation is

9:18

that in the 1960s

9:22

BC herring stocks collapsed after

9:24

intensive over fishing and biomass

9:26

recovery has been most successful in the

9:28

straight of Georgia. So the federal

9:30

management position is while that

9:32

there's been a decrease in herring

9:34

presence and spawning activity in the

9:35

southern portion of the strait. A total

9:38

herring the total herring biomass in the

9:40

straight of Georgia is great enough to

9:42

support current fishing pressure

9:43

sustainably. And managers will also

9:46

point to the areas open for fishing

9:49

within the straight of Georgia and state

9:51

that those are the central and northern

9:53

sections, not the southern section where

9:55

declines have been most acute.

9:59

And I think it's helpful to understand

10:01

the scale of the fishery in relation to

10:04

its historical counterpart. So one way

10:07

we can do that is to look at catch over

10:09

time. The data shown here is from

10:11

governmental catch records that have

10:13

been consolidated by fisheries and

10:15

oceans Canada. They're often referred to

10:18

by their acronym DFO.

10:21

And this time series here goes back to

10:23

the beginning of the commercial fishery

10:25

in 1888.

10:27

So we can see that before 1904 the

10:30

fishery was quite small taking at most a

10:33

couple thousands of tons per year for

10:35

fish meal, oil, halibet bait and fresh

10:38

fish. And then around 1904 it begins to

10:42

grow rapidly. Uh at that time salted

10:45

herring exports to China begin and

10:47

demand also grows for canned and pickled

10:49

herring particularly during wartime.

10:53

Post war there's this collapse of demand

10:56

for preserved herring both like salted

10:59

canned and pickled. So the fishery

11:02

shifts to a reduction fishery that's

11:04

really focused on rendering the fish

11:06

into meal and into um bait for other

11:11

species.

11:13

And then we see that in 1967

11:17

after a period of really intense

11:19

fishing, the population collapses and

11:21

there's a 2-year fisheries closure. And

11:24

what emerges out of that closure is a

11:27

fishery predominantly focused on sac row

11:30

and byproducts resulting from the fish

11:32

harvested for sacro. So herring row is a

11:35

delicacy which is ex exported to Asian

11:38

markets and unlike the widespread

11:40

indigenous practice of placing boughs in

11:43

the water for herring to spawn upon or

11:45

harvesting kelp upon which the herring

11:47

have spawned, sacro is harvested by

11:50

killing the fish and removing the row.

11:53

So that row is only about 12% of the

11:56

biomass of a mixed sex catch of herring.

11:59

The rest of the catch is processed into

12:02

products like pet food and pellets for

12:04

farmed salmon.

12:06

And while this fishery operates on a

12:08

much smaller scale than the fishery of

12:10

the 1960s, there are concerns over its

12:14

sustainability related to changes in

12:16

predation pressure resulting from

12:18

recovering marine mammal populations and

12:20

declines in other forage fish species.

12:23

Um, changes in climate and increasing

12:27

climate stress. We're also seeing a

12:29

declining diversity of spawn events both

12:32

in terms of that northern movement and

12:35

that decrease in spawning events around

12:37

the southern Vancouver Island region,

12:40

but we're also seeing that these spawns

12:41

occur during a shorter window of time

12:44

and there isn't as much temporal

12:46

diversity of spawning as there used to

12:48

be.

12:50

Similarly, we're seeing a declining size

12:52

at age trend that's being decline that's

12:55

being observed since the 1980s. So the

12:57

size of a three-year-old herring now is

12:59

smaller than it used to be. And finally,

13:02

and most critically to my work, there's

13:04

an often cited concern that the baseline

13:07

for modeled biomass, which is our

13:09

estimate of how many herring are in the

13:11

straight of Georgia, may be shifted, and

13:13

therefore management targets for a

13:15

healthy stock, may not be representative

13:18

of a truly healthy ecosystem.

13:22

So when I say a shifted baseline, I'm

13:25

referencing a core concept in historical

13:27

ecology, which is the phenomenon of

13:30

progressive forgetting of past

13:32

ecological states which shape

13:34

environmental decisionm. So I find this

13:38

illustration really helpful to describe

13:40

this point. Uh, for example, someone

13:43

living in the ecosystem of 2019 in this

13:46

illustration is likely to look to the

13:48

1950s as a past state of ecological

13:51

abundance because it was so much

13:53

comparatively richer to their present

13:56

reality, even though a huge amount of

13:58

environmental degradation occurred

14:01

before that point. So this pattern once

14:04

it's repeated over generations can

14:06

obscure the cumulative effect of human

14:09

impacts in that we forget what has been

14:11

lost and in doing so prevent efforts

14:13

towards recovery. In the case of the

14:16

herring fishery, the data incorporated

14:18

in the in in the integrated statistical

14:21

modeling framework used to develop catch

14:23

quotas and other reference points has

14:26

all been collected after 1950. And this

14:29

definitely raises a red flag around the

14:31

potential of a shifted baseline given

14:33

that mean annual catches in the early

14:35

1900s were greater than the catches

14:38

being taken today. And it's this

14:40

question of a shifted baseline that I've

14:42

really focused on for my master's

14:44

research.

14:46

And that brings me to the next section

14:48

on existing historical research on the

14:52

straight of Georgia herring populations.

14:54

So, I'm far from the first to be

14:57

interested in this question of shifting

14:58

baselines for herring in the straight of

15:00

Georgia region. And in this section, I'm

15:03

going to describe some of the research

15:05

that predates mine and really helps

15:08

frame the research gap that I'm aiming

15:10

to address in my thesis.

15:14

So, I entered my literature review with

15:16

two questions. one was focused on the

15:19

abundance and geographical distribution

15:21

of herring in the state of Georgia

15:23

before 1951. So before the information

15:26

that's presently being used for herring

15:28

management. And my second question was

15:32

focused on identifying biological

15:34

markers, specifically types of data that

15:36

can provide insight into changes in

15:38

fishing pressure or population

15:40

diversity. So I wanted to know if there

15:43

was pre-1951 information available that

15:46

allowed for change to be assessed over

15:48

time.

15:51

And what I found in the his in the

15:53

existing literature was that there have

15:55

been three predominant approaches used

15:57

by others to hypothesize baselines for

16:00

straight of Georgia herring. The first

16:02

of these was zoo archaeological research

16:05

and secondly modeling based on trophic

16:08

or food web interactions. And then

16:11

finally, some geographically restricted

16:14

historical research that really went in

16:16

depth into the archive. In terms of my

16:19

second question on biological markers

16:22

and data that could be used to assess

16:25

specific aspects of biological change

16:27

over time, there's been really

16:29

interesting work done in other regions,

16:32

but little has been done for the

16:33

straight of Georgia population.

16:37

So getting into some of the work that's

16:40

being done in terms of zoo archaeolog in

16:43

terms of zoo archaeology,

16:46

the publication that I've referenced

16:48

most heavily is a 2014 metaanalysis by

16:51

Dr. Ian Mckne at all of fishbones at 171

16:56

archaeological sites along the Pacific

16:59

coast. So data from sites in the

17:01

straight of Georgia region indicate a

17:04

very high abundance of herring and in

17:06

southern sections of the straight of

17:08

Georgia herring were super abundant. So

17:11

they constituted 80 to 100% of fish

17:14

remains at most sites from that region.

17:17

Furthermore, the presence of herring

17:19

remains throughout the entirety of

17:20

archaeological samples from this region

17:23

really indicates a consistency of

17:25

indigenous harvest over time.

17:28

Additionally, the geographic

17:30

distribution of archaeological sites is

17:32

greater than the known distribution of

17:34

present-day herring massing and spawning

17:37

areas, indicating that there was a

17:39

greater geographic spread of herring in

17:42

the past. So the authors conclude that

17:45

since pre-conduct indigenous harvests

17:48

captured within the zoo archaeological

17:50

record, there's been a decline in

17:52

geographical distribution and mean

17:54

abundance of Pacific herring in this

17:56

region. Additionally, the variability

17:59

that we see in her populations now,

18:02

which go through fluctuations of high

18:04

and low biomass, that variability was

18:08

either not as pronounced as it is as it

18:10

is now, or it never reached the biomass

18:13

lows that we see now because it never

18:16

disrupted indigenous harvest.

18:21

So the second approach that I want to

18:23

talk about is the back to the future

18:26

project which was an effort led by

18:29

fisheries researchers at UBC to

18:31

reconstruct the ecosystem of the

18:34

straight of Georgia in 1885 by modeling

18:37

trophic which essentially can be

18:39

summarized as food web interactions

18:42

uh between 26 functional groups. And a

18:45

functional group here is essentially a

18:47

group of species fulfilling similar

18:49

ecological roles. And because Pacific

18:52

herring are so unique in their

18:54

ecological function, they were a group

18:56

unto themselves in this model.

18:59

The ecopath model that they used for

19:01

this project ran on input data from a

19:04

variety of sources including interviews

19:07

with indigenous knowledge holders, catch

19:09

records, and archival records on various

19:13

species. They mainly focused on um

19:16

archival records on predator

19:19

populations. So there wasn't a major

19:21

in-depth archival review for Pacific

19:24

herring. Conclusions from their modeling

19:27

approach suggested that in order to

19:29

support the predator abundance that

19:31

would have been present in 1885, herring

19:34

in the straight of Georgia would have

19:35

been 1.75 to 2.2 times more abundant

19:39

than they were in 1995.

19:42

And additionally they estimate that 30%

19:44

of those herring would have been what we

19:46

call resident herring which are

19:48

populations that stay in the straight of

19:50

Georgia year round. And these

19:53

populations fulfill a very diff

19:54

different ecological function than their

19:57

migratory counterparts. So

19:59

distinguishing between between the two

20:01

in management is really critical for

20:04

ecologically informed decision making.

20:09

And in recent years, ecopath modeling

20:11

has continued to be used as an approach

20:14

in historical studies of herring

20:16

populations. In recent years, a group of

20:19

researchers from SFU and UBC have been

20:22

applying this method to a collaborative

20:24

project with the Slaywood Nation in

20:27

estimating the pre-cont ecology of their

20:30

traditional territories with a focus on

20:32

the Bard inlet in particular.

20:35

In addition to modeling, this group has

20:37

drawn from a diversity of historical

20:39

sources, including interviews with

20:41

knowledge holders, archival documents,

20:44

and archaeological data. While their

20:46

focus has not been exclusively on

20:48

herring, descriptions of herring

20:50

abundance are numerous throughout this

20:52

body of work due to its positionality as

20:55

a cultural keystone.

21:00

Findings from this research are directly

21:02

relevant to understanding historical

21:04

baselines for herring. And specific

21:08

findings I want to highlight here are

21:10

that slayightoothoth diets were

21:12

extremely herringri with herring and

21:15

herring row contributing a greater

21:17

caloric portion to these diets than

21:19

salmon. Additionally, the work from this

21:23

research group uh highlights a rapid

21:26

decline in herring abundance within the

Kai Muir: "Herring Historical Ecology in the Strait of Georgia"

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