abstract: In 2004, a Strait of Georgia juvenile herring survey was conducted from September 23 to
October 3. Forty-five purse seine sets were made at 10 locations within Trincomali
Channel in the south to Smelt Bay in the north. The survey monitors the distribution and
relative abundance of young of the year herring in the Strait of Georgia as a predictor
of recruitment to the spawning stock and fishery at age-3 in the future. Twenty-seven
species of fish were identified in the purse seine catches with herring being the most
frequently encountered species. A total of 5292 herring were measured resulting in a
length frequency distribution that was distinctly bimodal representing age-0+ and age-1+
fish. Age-0+, age-1+ and age-2+ or older herring occured in 82.2%, 28.9% and 11.1% of
the sets, repectively. Twenty-nine oblique plankton tows were performed during the
survey. Barnacle larvae, Corycaeus anglicus, unidentifiable calanoid copepods and
larvaceans (Oikopleura s., Fritillaria sp.) were the most prominent zooplankters.
