Eleni Petrou of the University of Washington will speak on the past and present relationships between herring and human communities in the Salish Sea.

The SeaDoc Society and YMCA Camp Orkila Present “Chasing the Silver Sea of Fish: Herring and Human Communities” on Tuesday, March 8 at 7 p.m. at the Emmanuel Parish Hall.

Petrou, a graduate student at the School of Aquatic and Fisheries Sciences, is using genetic markers to identify present and historical populations of herring. She is helping to decode DNA found in tiny herring bones that are up to 2,500 years old. This genetic research is being integrated with the traditional ecological knowledge of tribal elders in British Columbia and Washington to understand what herring populations were like in past generations, before the urbanization of the Salish Sea. Herring are a critical food resource for salmon, seabirds, and marine mammals.

Many Salish Sea Tribes and First Nations, including the Samish and the Lummi, have used herring as food for millennia. And herring themselves are cool. Fun fact: scientists have discovered that herring communicate at night by passing air stored in their swim bladders through their anus – that’s right: communication by farting.