Tonnes of dumped herring a fish 'murder mystery,' says expert

Herring expert David Ellis says to crack the case of the tonnes of dead fish found littering the sea floor near Bowser onVancouver 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 isthat's everything."

Ellis is a former commercial fisherman and long-time herring researcher with UBC'snatural resourcemanagement program.

On March 19, members of Hornby IslandConservancy shot underwater videoof 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 tipthata commercial fishing vessel had dumped its load of netted herring after a packing vessel had refused the catch.

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Ellis said ifscientists 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.

Conservationists say they've found evidence of a large herring dump off Vancouver Island

4 years ago

Duration 3:26

Conservancy Hornby Island members say as many as 45,000 fish were dumped by a fishing vessel in Deep Bay, near Bowser, B.C.

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 andI've been working on this for 39 years now are over-fished sothe older females have been killed off and thefish 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 dumpcontains 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 DFOhow many observers were present during the Georgia Straitherring openingbut had not yet had a response by the time of publication.

DFO's conservation and protection armis investigating the alleged dumpingincident. 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 sayDFOestimates show the Pacificherring population dwindling to 60 per cent of previous levels, between2016 and 2020.