2021/04/2021 Gairloch Herring Spawning Shoot
In March 2021 we heard reports of herring spawning near Loch Torridon and were even sent photographs of a herring with spawn. There were also reports of herring spawning from the Inner sound of Skye somewhere near the Crowlin Islands. Ian Napier and Bally Philps of SCFF, Jason Hall Spencer the leading expert on maerl, members of Open Seas, and recreational volunteer divers, set out to look for herring spawning in Gairloch. We targeted maerl beds where Andy Jackson and George Brown had documented herring spawning in March 2019. Andy had previously filmed herring spawning for Blue Planet.
On Friday the 19th of March Frank Melvin went out with a dropdown camera to look for gannets but saw no signs of herring spawning. On Sunday the 21st of March, Mark Skea, Chris Rickard, Frank, and Jason dived, again hoping to find herring and signs of spawning. Sadly, the survey failed to find a single herring and we found no spawning on the maerl bed. Jason, however, got some good samples of maerl which he looked at under the microscope and it was at least spawning – so at least we found spawning – if not the species we had anticipated. It was wonderful to have a world class expert to help us.
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