Herring Season
The photo above is by a local Parksville photographer Diane Dugas, who posts excellent views from our Parksville beach on her twitter feed, and it shows a Seine trawler during this years herring run. You can clearly see the contrast of the colour of the water which turns a light blue closer to shore from all the white skinned herring in the water.
So now the herring season off the mid-island coast has come and gone. It's carefully managed by the Department of Fisheries who dictate exactly when, and for how long each type of fishing, is allowed.
It opened on Tuesday March 16th at exactly 6pm for seine fishers and for gill fishing at 1pm the next day. The fishing is constantly monitored from above and on the boat electronically and on the dock to ensure quotas are not exceeded.
Looks like it was a good season, a lot of families depend on just these few days for their entire years revenue. Estimates were for 150 vessels to take part this year.
Here's a 2 minute video from our local tv news station that is certainly worth checking out. You'll see the light blue waters, and views of our French Creek marina from above, and the vessels off Qualicum, and, just because this is the island, the videographer gets bonus points for tagging on a story of a drowning eagle in the middle of the chaos
Here are some of my photos when I went to see the action on two different days. Lots of sea lions, seabirds waiting for easy catches, pickup trucks lining the street and parking lots, belonging to the crew, boats going in and out, and people watching from the jetty.
In some photos you can see the snow capped mountains of whistler and garabaldi on the mainland
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