Events: And then there are Events!

6:30 am! Tucker and I were out for our morning walk on  the causeway at Qualicum Beach, B.C. It was a clear, calm morning. Hardly a ripple marred the glasslike surface of  Georgia Strait. As the semi darkness brightened all this began to change.

At first it was the usual suspects who began to appear: sea lions, sea gulls and Brant.

About 100 meters off the water’s edge a pod of sea lions was moving lazily along. Sea gulls by the thousands were gathering on the shore line. And a large flock of Brant was swimming in a tight knot farther out from the  shore.  In the distance I noticed the first of what would be many large fishing boars making its way towards the beach. 

By noon about 20 commercial fishing boats, large and small, were on the scene. By nightfall that number had increased to over 50. They were in a line stretching away from my location for more than a kilometer. It was the beginning of a short, two day, herring fishery. 

The fishery  continued through the overnight hours before the boats began to disperse in the early morning light and head toward their ‘home’ fish processing port. I had never seen an event unfold like the  one that day in early March at Qualicum Beach. 

Whenever I have photographed events  people were the centre of my attention. Whether it was a sporting event like the pickleball nationals, the 55+ B.C. Summer Games or a cultural event such as the Sikh community’s Vaisakhi celebrations participants were enthusiastically involved with their chosen sport or activity. Costumes and uniforms were colourful, the action captivating.  My camera was busy. 

As I watched from shore and photographed the action around the herring fleet I found it very difficult to see the fishermen on their boats let alone make images of them. So,  how was I to make photographic sense of this interesting event?

While the sea lions lolled about and occasionally barked at each other and the Brant seemed glued in their large flock on the surface of the water the real action involved the smaller boats and the thousands of sea gulls. Seemingly anchored the large boats remained in one location. Smaller boats flitted about, their crews setting nets and marker buoys and later bringing  in their catch. It seemed as though some of  the larger boats served as bases collecting the catches of the smaller boats.

We were tipped off that something was ‘up’ the evening before when out in the channel that separates Qualicum Beach from Lasqueti Island we observed a huge gathering of sea gulls clamoring and crying out.  It was an amazing sight and indicated that fish were ‘running’ just below the water’s surface. It was an early indication that the herring run was beginning and that the real action would provided by the gulls. 

All day long the gulls paddled about or waited  patiently on the beach. When fish were present they flew in great clouds close to the water’s surface trying to catch their share of the fish. The cacophony of screeching  was amazing. 

While on a trip to Australia we witnessed a similar event while touring Kangaroo Island in South Australia, a two hour ferry ride from Adelaide. We had embarked on a tour of the island and had stopped near a fish processing plant. A worker stepped out of the building with a large bucked of fish guts and proceeded to a small concrete grand stand like structure. 

A bus load of tourists sat there in aniticapation of the ‘show’ that was coming.  A whistle from the worker and from out of nowhere large Australian Pelicans  began to appear, making a ‘bee line’ toward worker and his bucket of fish guts. As he threw bits of fish out to these huge birds more of them showed up. Like the Qualicum Beach event the Kangaroo Island event was equally as interesting. Here too, the action was captivating,