wordsfromanneli

Thoughts, ideas, photos, and stories.

Herring Provides for All

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The seiners wait in the harbour for the signal that the herring are fat enough, with a high enough roe count, to allow the roe herring fishery to proceed.

Rafts of sea lions are waiting too. They will take advantage of the herring being “rounded up” in the purse seines of the big boats. Many herring “escape,” right into the waiting jaws of these huge mammals.

Some of them like the fishy smell coming from small power boats and are trying to investigate up close.

Seagulls wheel around the seiners trying to grab any herring that swims too close to the surface.

This immature eagle is about to find out that the beach will be full of bounty as roe and herring and bycatch float ashore. These foods provide much-needed calories for the eagles especially at their nesting time, which happens very soon after the herring fishery. Healthy eagles will have healthy chicks.

And let’s not forget that as much as we scoff at seagulls and their shrieking habits, they are the janitors of the beaches, cleaning up every bit of mess.

Once the carnage has been cleaned up, the animals have to scrounge what food they can until next year’s feast.

Author: wordsfromanneli

Writing, travel, photography, nature, more writing....

45 thoughts on “Herring Provides for All

  1. Wow, beautiful photography and thoughts, Anneli, thanks. 😍😎🇨🇦

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  2. Wonderful and so scenic. I love them! დ

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  3. It´s fun to see the sea lions snuggling together. Very interesting pictures. Thanks for sharing Anneli!

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  4. The sea lions are so huge! Great photos. 🙂

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  5. Herring! Makes me long for the pckled herring I used to eat in Germany.
    Thanks, Anneli, for the pictures and the information.
    Have a great weekend,
    Pit

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  6. Not a good day to be a herring!

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  7. Great post! What a joy to see the excitement of the herring drawing humans and boats, sea lions and sea birds. There is something sacred about the herring season, and you captured it well here with your words and photos, Anneli.

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  8. Interesting reading, Anneli. So much depends on this fishery. I particularly like the fishing boats and gull photos.

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  9. Sea Lions. Eagles. Who needs a zoo? Amazing.

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  10. They all enjoy their herring..those Sea Lions are first in line.

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  11. Lovely series of photos, and so many fishing boats!! I hope there’s enough fish to go around and enough are left for next season.

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    • The herring fishery is managed very well and has been going on for decades. They are careful to only allow a certain number to be caught. Each boat has a quota, so there is no overfishing. It’s a very, very short opening.

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  12. I’m a fan of herring too, without the bones, heads and fins, though. It’s fun to see the ecosystem at work for all. 🙂

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  13. I hadn’t thought of seagulls as janitors. Good point! Super post, Anneli. Love the photos.

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  14. Nice photos. Did you take all of those? When I lived in Florida, the tourists fed the seagulls. It was so annoying, because those birds were always trying to get at our food when at the beach.

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  15. Very nice and interesting combination of photos and narrative!

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