Black Bears and Pacific Herring: Novel Interactions and Insights into the Past

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Wednesday, February 25th, 2015
7:30 PM

Along the Pacific coast of North America, ancient relationships between bears and salmon result in the transport of salmon carcasses, nutrients and energy into coastal forests. Salmon-bear interactions fundamentally modify many coastal systems, but these interactions do not occur in isolation.

In spring, black bears emerge from hibernation and leave their dens to search the lands and shorelines for nourishment. Spawning in mass aggregations against the shore, Pacific herring, the dominant forage fish in BC, cover intertidal and subtidal zones with layers of eggs. Highly mobile and opportunistic, black bears exploit lipid-rich herring eggs in a springtime feast that can last for over a month.

Come learn about previously undocumented relationships between black bears and Pacific herring, a declining species of marine ecosystems. Alongside images of wildlife captured by remote cameras and aerial photography of herring spawns, this talk underscores what many people living on this coast already know; that Pacific herring are both poorly understood and vitally important to coastal ecosystems.

Dr. Caroline Fox is a conservation scientist and postdoctoral fellow with Raincoast Conservation Foundation and the Department of Geography at the University of Victoria. Her research interests revolve around marine-terrestrial interactions, marine predator ecology and the study of human impacts in marine ecosystems. As a big-picture ecologist, her research spans a diversity of coastal ecosystems and taxa, including kelp forests, seabirds and black bears. She teaches marine ecology and conservation courses at the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre, provides outreach and communications for Raincoast Conservation Foundation and spends time exploring the wild British Columbian coast.