Chasing the Silver Sea of Fish: Herring and Human Communities

Marine Science Lecture, Tuesday, March 8,at 7 p.m. at Emmanuel Parish Hall FREE

— from Jean Lyle for the SeaDoc Society —

YMCA Camp Orkila and the SeaDoc Society Present Eleni Petrou of the University of Washington, who will speak on March 8 on the past and present relationships between herring and human communities in the Salish Sea.

Petrou, a graduate student at the School of Aquatic and Fisheries Sciences, is using genetic markers to identify present and historical populations of herring. She is helping to decode DNA found in tiny herring bones that are up to 2,500 years old. This genetic research is being integrated with the traditional ecological knowledge of tribal elders in British Columbia and Washington to understand what herring populations were like in past generations, before the urbanization of the Salish Sea.

Herring are a critical food resource for salmon, seabirds, and marine mammals.

Many Salish Sea Tribes and First Nations, including the Samish and the Lummi, have used herring as food for millennia. And herring themselves are cool. Fun fact – scientists have discovered that herring communicate at night by passing air stored in their swim bladders through their anus – that’s right: communication by farting.

The 2015­-16 Marine Science Lecture Series is designed to inspire the general public and to highlight important scientific issues in our region. Lectures are free.

This lecture is co-sponsored by the San Juan County Marine Resources Committee with funds originally granted by the Puget Sound Partnership and the US EPA. The Lecture Series is presented by program partners The SeaDoc Society and YMCA Camp Orkila. This year’s series is made possible through generous sponsorship by Tom and Nate Averna (Deer Harbor Charters), Barbara Brown, Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Audrey and Dean Stupke, West Sound Marina, WWW Foundation (Bryce and Sue Rhodes), and Martha Wyckoff in honor of Lee Rolfe. Co-­sponsorship by Glenn Prestwich and Barbara Bentley. For more information visit https://www.seadocsociety.org/events