Light Pollution
I mentioned earlier that herring don't like light. They are active during the night - and the darker the better. As the sun comes up, herring head for darker and deeper water. I've noticed over the years that there is a lot more artificial light and I suspect that this affects herring. There are street lights - and I think the orange coloured lights are especially bad since they really mimic the glow of the moon on the water - but there are lots of other sources of lights as cities and towns get larger. All of the light makes a glow in the sky and reflects on the water.
One flash of lightning can ruin a nights fishing because once the herring are spooked they don't come back to shore. You might as well go home. Fireworks have the same effect as lightning, so Canada Day, Fourth of July, Labour Day, Indian Day and any other celebration that involves fireworks - even 7-10 miles away - is bad for the weir fishery. But only fisherman would notice this. It's the last thing on the minds of people organizing these celebrations.
I should mention though, that if something is driving herring - like squid or dogfish, silverhake or some other predator - they will go ashore no matter what. I guess you could say that predators drive fish despite their fears of light and sound because they're more afraid of predators than anything. And herring move in schools - so once a few herring move one way the whole school follows. It's follow the leader. I've watched schools of herring from an airplane at night and you can see a small bunch come to the surface first - it almost seems like they're scouting it out - and then the bunch gets bigger and bigger and spreads out along the surface of the water. It's an amazing sight.
Light pollution is a big concern and we are always trying to help policy makers understand this. But it's not easy to convince them.
One flash of lightning can ruin a nights fishing because once the herring are spooked they don't come back to shore. You might as well go home. Fireworks have the same effect as lightning, so Canada Day, Fourth of July, Labour Day, Indian Day and any other celebration that involves fireworks - even 7-10 miles away - is bad for the weir fishery. But only fisherman would notice this. It's the last thing on the minds of people organizing these celebrations.
I should mention though, that if something is driving herring - like squid or dogfish, silverhake or some other predator - they will go ashore no matter what. I guess you could say that predators drive fish despite their fears of light and sound because they're more afraid of predators than anything. And herring move in schools - so once a few herring move one way the whole school follows. It's follow the leader. I've watched schools of herring from an airplane at night and you can see a small bunch come to the surface first - it almost seems like they're scouting it out - and then the bunch gets bigger and bigger and spreads out along the surface of the water. It's an amazing sight.
Light pollution is a big concern and we are always trying to help policy makers understand this. But it's not easy to convince them.
