Vegetation mapping of herring spawning grounds in British Columbia

A knowledge of the extent and type of shoreline vegetation on which Pacific herring annually deposit adhesive eggs is helpful in determining the amount of spawn deposited and hence the size of the spawning population. Low-level aerial photography was evaluated as a means of preparing maps of shoreline vegetation. Maps of spawning localities in Barkley Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island were drawn from color infrared and color aerial photographs at a scale of 1:3600. The charts were assessed in terms of accuracy and species composition of vegetation zones by a scuba-diving survey.