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Discovering Kwilakm
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  • Changing Climate
    • Hotter Ocean Temperatures
    • Changing Ocean Chemistry
    • Rising Sea Levels and Intensifying Winter Storms
    • When Seashore Temperatures Spike – Killer Heat Dome 2021
  • Terminal Creek
    • Where does Terminal Creek’s Water Come From?
    • Signal Crayfish
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  • The Lagoon
    • The Tidal Inlet that became the Lagoon
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  • Shores
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    • The Terminal Creek Sand Flats
    • The Curious Clay Beds of Kwilákm
    • Blue Mussels
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    • Oysters in Kwilákm
  • Shallows
    • Eelgrass
    • Young Chum Salmon
    • Winter Bay Birds
    • Year-Round Bay Birds
  • Deeper Waters
    • Plankton
    • Northern Anchovy
    • Harbour Seal
    • Octopus
Conservancy logoBowen Island Conservancy
    • About
    • Get Involved
  • Discovering Kwilákm
    • About
    • Get Involved
  • Changing Climate
    • Hotter Ocean Temperatures
    • Changing Ocean Chemistry
    • Rising Sea Levels and Intensifying Winter Storms
    • When Seashore Temperatures Spike – Killer Heat Dome 2021
  • Terminal Creek
    • Where does Terminal Creek’s Water Come From?
    • Signal Crayfish
    • Terminal Creek Fish Hatchery
  • The Lagoon
    • The Tidal Inlet that became the Lagoon
    • Aquatic Plants
    • Chum Salmon
    • The Beaver
    • Canada Geese
    • Three-Spined Stickleback
  • Shores
    • Nearshore Forests
    • Beaches
    • The Terminal Creek Sand Flats
    • The Curious Clay Beds of Kwilákm
    • Blue Mussels
    • Clams
    • Purple Stars
    • Oysters in Kwilákm
  • Shallows
    • Eelgrass
    • Young Chum Salmon
    • Winter Bay Birds
    • Year-Round Bay Birds
  • Deeper Waters
    • Plankton
    • Northern Anchovy
    • Harbour Seal
    • Octopus

Photo: Bob Turner

Deeper Waters

Northern Anchovy

(Engraulis mordax)

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Discover Kwilakm » Story » Deeper Waters » Northern Anchovy

Anchovy are a small fish with a huge impact on the overall health of Atl’ka7tsem/Howe Soundand Kwilákm and our enjoyment of nature. If a school of anchovy is nearby, you are sure to know because it creates a spectacle that you cannot miss. All sorts of birds and mammals are in on the feast!

Anchovy are a small (18-25 cm) silvery schooling fish similar to herring, smelt, and sardines that together are referred to as forage or bait fish. Northern anchovy are most abundant further south off the coast of California and Oregon, but southern BC has always been within the northern limit of their range. But since 2015, likely related to a warming ocean, anchovy have become the most commonly observed forage fish in outer Atl’ka7tsem/Howe Soundand around Bowen Island.

An anchovy in the palm of a hand
A close up look at an anchovy. Photo: Tim Turner

Anchovy of all stages of life, except eggs, have been observed in Kwilákm. Anchovy are open water spawners, with females laying their eggs and males fertilizing them with sperm in offshore waters. This spawning is rarely observed.

However juvenile anchovy 2 to 3 cm long have been observed by snorkelers in Kwilákm most summers since 2015.

School of anchovy underwater
School of juvenile 5 cm anchovy in Kwilákm during the summer of 2021. Photo: Bob Turner

The summer of 2021 was especially remarkable, with large schools of juvenile anchovy resident in Kwilákm throughout the summer months. Some schools of smaller anchovy 2 to 3 cm long were likely hatched in 2021. Some schools of larger fish, 5 to 6 cm long, were likely hatched in 2020. Cutthroat trout ranging in size from 15 to 20 cm. long were commonly seen hunting these anchovy. The trout swim below the schools, darting up to seize their prey.

But it is the schools of adult anchovy that really create the drama. These schools can be herded into bays and towards shores by diving ducks such as cormorants and merganser, as well as by seals and sea lions. Then a frenzy begins.

Many sea gulls floating on the water
A swirl of gulls is a likely sign that a school of anchovy or herring are at surface, likely forced up by the attack of diving birds or seals and sea lions. Photo:Will Husby

Gulls quickly gather to feast on the anchovy school forced up to the surface by the underwater attacks of birds and mammals. Such an event was captured by Bob Turner in his video “Howe Sound Ballet”. While screaming gulls circled above, other gulls plunged to catch anchovy near surface, and seals, a sea lion, cormorants and a merganser attacked from below.

A sea lion hunting anchovy underwater
A school of anchovy scatter away from an attacking sea lion, underwater Kwilákm. Photo: Bob Turner
Seal in the middle of a school of anchovy
A school of adult anchovy evade a seal underwater in Kwilákm. Photo: Bob Turner

All this time the anchovy school, perhaps 4 metres wide and 3 metres deep, continuously changed shape as fish evaded the attackers but remained as a school.

Anchovy grow to 18 to 25 cm long and can live seven years. They are primarily filter feeders and swim with their mouths agape, straining plankton.

Northern Anchovy
“Northern Anchovies,Engraulis mordax” by J.J. Maughn is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

This open-mouth feeding flares the gill covers, causing a circular reflection in sunlight. Aa school of anchovy produce a glittering mass of silver-dollar flashes that distinguishes them from herring.

Anchovy school viewed from the surface
The tell-tale mass of silver dollar flashes distinguishes a school of anchovy from herring. Photo: Megan Sewell

More About Deeper Waters

  • Deeper Waters
  • Plankton
  • Northern Anchovy
  • Harbour Seal
  • Octopus
  • Adam Taylor’s Close Encounters of the Octopus Kind

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