The Searching for Slhawt’ – Herring Spawn Survey Program was born of stories from Skwxwu7mesh elders, the excitement of learning.  From the beginning, it was clear we needed to understand these magnificent little fish better. The herring spawn survey program is a partnership between volunteers from the settler community of Squamish, the Atl’ka7tsem/Howe Sound Marine Stewardship Initiative and the Squamish Nation Rights and Title Department.  The team of volunteers and staff have been monitoring herring spawns since the beginning of August and have had several pulses of herring spawns through the survey region.

The goal of this work is to lay a foundation of baseline data demonstrating the spatial distribution and timing of herring spawns in northern Atl’ka7tsem – Howe Sound.

On March 9th, the weekend of the 2024 Herring Fest, the first large herring spawn was documented. For Squamish, it is often a sure sign that something exciting is happening when gulls start calling and sealions swim up into the estuary barking as they hunt. Over the following three days, herring spawn was documented by volunteers in all of our survey sites throughout the Skwel’wilem estuary.

A week later, our survey crew documented herring spawn on a less accessible portion of shoreline on the East side of Atl’ka7tsem – Howe Sound. This was great to document as it was a section of shoreline where we have not seen herring spawning in past years.

This year was also the community’s largest Herring Welcome Celebration. Youth from St’a7mes School, the Skwxwu7mesh community, elders and friends all gathered to sing songs, feast and welcome back the herring to these waters.  In late March, a small number of hemlock and cedar boughs were placed in the water as an invitation to the herring to spawn.  The trees soaked for two weeks, and on April 13, the herring showed up, and a series of spawns took place.