Tonnes of dumped herring a fish 'murder mystery,' says expert
Herring researcher David Ellis says to crack the case, investigators need to determine when the fish died
Herring expert David Ellis says to crack the case of the tonnes of dead fish found littering the sea floor near Bowser on Vancouver Island, investigators should approach the incident like a "murder mystery."
"It should be an independent forensic investigation as to when these herring died," he said. "You have to know what the time of death is — that's everything."
Ellis is a former commercial fisherman and long-time herring researcher with UBC's natural resource management program.
On March 19, members of Hornby Island Conservancy shot underwater video of what appears to be tens of thousands of dead herring in Deep Bay, off Vancouver Island.
The group says it was acting on an anonymous tip that a commercial fishing vessel had dumped its load of netted herring after a packing vessel had refused the catch.
Ellis said if scientists can nail down when the fish died — something he claims is fairly easy — it may help them ascribe a motive to whoever dumped the fish.
"Once we know that, we can start to figure out if these fish are from the [herring fishery] opening, or were they from an illegal fishery," he said.
The herring fishery closed on Mar. 17 in the Strait of Georgia zone, B.C.'s lone remaining commercial herring roe fishery.
Ellis said there are other possible explanations for the dump, including "high grading," where fishers choose to keep only the most commercially valuable herring that haven't "spawned out" and still have eggs.
"The rule is you have to sell every fish you take on board," he said.
"The fish at Hornby — and I've been working on this for 39 years now— are over-fished so the older females have been killed off and the fish generally are very small. If you catch a load of fish, nearly half of it is going to be really small, barely even saleable."
Ellis said there's also a small chance the fish were dumped because they went rotten on board.
Grant Scott of Hornby Island Conservancy estimates the dump contains 45,000 herring, or between four and five tonnes.
"It's sad, even for the fishing industry, that they've wasted the fish and there's going to be that much fewer fish in the future for the industry," he said. "It's kind of crazy on both the environmental front and on the fisheries front."
Ellis also pointed out that because of COVID-19, observers who normally monitor the fishery may not have been working.
CBC asked DFO how many observers were present during the Georgia Strait herring opening but had not yet had a response by the time of publication.
DFO's conservation and protection arm is investigating the alleged dumping incident. Commercial fishers are prohibited from dumping any catch from a vessel.
Unlike salmon, which die after spawning, mature herring can return to spawn annually for many consecutive years.
Conservationists say DFO estimates show the Pacific herring population dwindling to 60 per cent of previous levels, between 2016 and 2020.
With files from Yvette Brend