What fish is that?
Fishes of the Strait of Georgia: More than 240 Life Stories
by Dick Beamish & Jeff Marliave
Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2025
$80 / 9781990776830
Reviewed by DC Reid
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If you have ever caught a fish whose species was unknown to you, or found a strange fish on the seashore, or simply wanted a reference book on our fish, Fishes of the Strait of Georgia is the book for you. There are more than 240 life histories of all the fishes calling the strait home for all or part of the year. Dick Beamish and Jeff Marliave are well-known scientists who have put this book together for you.
There are, of course, fish of all different types, from the non-cartilaginous to vertebrate fish, like salmon. On the old scale, hagfishes may have existed for as many as 500 million years. In other words, a very long time. And Pacific Lampreys may be found attached to humpback whales in their first year, looking for food.
Moving to cartilaginous fish, rattails, sharks, skates, and rays form a large group, more than 1,100 species around the world, with 17 occurring in the Strait of Georgia (SOG). And shark type fish form the largest fish, Salmon sharks up to 300 cm with a maximum weight of 450 kg, and average age of 30 years. The Common Thresher Shark has a tail as long as its body and simply can’t be misidentified because of it. As well as by its big size, up to 7.6 m and 420 kg.
The Basking Shark is the second-largest shark in the world and can reach up to 15 m and 4 tonnes. They are harmless giants as they eat mostly plankton and feed by filtering the water. They can be found right at the surface, as well as deep as 1200 m and have the longest gestation period of any vertebrate, in the range of 2.5 to 3.5 years.
On the other end, the Brown Cat Shark is the smallest shark in BC, with an average length of 33 cm and is recognized by that short length. The Blue Shark, that average 2.5 to 3 m, are found in the top 30 m of water and rarely as deep as 100 m, uncommon for shark species. On the other end, Bluntnose Sixgill Shark, a common fish, inhabits from the surface down to 2500 m, and its length hits 4.8 m.
The Broadnose Sevengill Shark was commercially caught by bottom trawl in the early days of groundfish catch, from the 1940s to 1960s. They are on the higher end in terms of pups, as young sharks are called, reaching 86.
Pacific Spiny Dogfish has six families, and about 120 species worldwide. Two species are found in BC, with a record depth of 3,675 m. Surprisingly, they are even found in fresh water. The species includes the smallest of all sharks, under 20 cm and one of the largest, which is up to 7.3 m. They are among the long-lived sharks at 105 years. A staggering 51,000 were tagged in the SOG between 1978 and 1988. They are an important animal in First Nations cultures. They form the family crest of Haida royalty. And they are associated with women because of their persistence, strength, and innate leadership. The dogfish woman is the most prominent shark in Haida legends.
The Pacific Angel Shark is a flat fish resembling halibut in shape, and thus a bottom fish. And they were reported to be found in 12 m of water, 30 m off Clover Point in Victoria. So, a pretty civilized fish. On the other hand, the Bering Skate is a species that is rare to these waters, but existing from the Bering Sea in Alaska down to British Columbia. The Longnose Skate, on the other hand, is probably the most abundant skate in the SOG.
Sturgeon as many people know, spend a good part of their existence in freshwater. They are the world’s largest freshwater fish, up to 7.2 m and 1.57 t. And they live long, up to 150 years old. The Green Surgeon are listed as threatened and are protected. These prehistoric fish have survived more than 200 million years.
There are a number of fish in the smaller size range that include herring and anchovies. Anchovies are the most abundant fish in Burrard Inlet, with females producing up to 30,000 eggs in a year. Herring usually number up to two billion individuals. It is estimated that lamprey kill as many as 150 too 200 million herring each year. So, they get to be food and don’t live very long. They are, of course, the main food for chinook salmon, and have formed a commercial fishing target for decades. One group spawn in Esquimalt Harbour in Victoria.
Northern Smoothtongue is one of the most abundant species with numbers around 2 billion. They are most common in mid-strait waters to about 100 m. Capelin numbers have dropped since water temperatures have climbed. Eulachon are famous for being one of the main fish of the Indigenous ‘grease’ trail.
Of course, there are the six species of salmonids, five of salmon and steelhead, Oncorhynchus mykiss. They top the list of our fish for retaining and dinner. Pink salmon are the most abundant, spawning in 150 rivers in the Strait. They are unusual in being rigidly 2-year fish, returning in either an odd year or even year. The Fraser, which hosts millions of pinks, is an odd year returning river, while the Vancouver Island rivers on the Strait, are usually even year return fish. Literally hundreds of millions of their fry enter the sea in April and May. There are 2,200 distinct populations of pink salmon.
Chum salmon numbers are from 650 million to 1 billion. Their range of spawning is the greatest of all salmon species from California through BC and all the way to Russia. There are 300 spawning populations in the Strait of Georgia. And they spawn from October to November in many coastal streams. Ocean survival has declined and many spawning abundances have also collapsed.
Coho juveniles raise largely in the Strait. Then they migrate to the west of Vancouver Island where they mature in their second year. However, since 2022, a large percentage of coho fry remained in the Strait over the winter. They can be distinguished by their white gums and hook nose, the latter mostly in males. They spawn all the way to Japan and are the fastest growing of all salmon species.
Steelhead are the most sought-after species by fly fishers and have an almost mystical nature while one is gently handling them before release. Small in numbers, there are only about 2,000 in the east coast of Vancouver Island, and 5,000 in the Fraser. Most runs are fewer than 200 adults, which adds to the value of catching one. And populations are declining, mainly because of poor survival in the ocean.
Sockeye are almost all from tributaries and lakes of the Fraser River, with three life-histories: lake, river, and sea type. The last is from the Harrison River. These fish are the most brightly coloured of the salmon, being mostly red bodied during spawning, with an also brightly visible green head. Hard to mistake them. Most can be found far out in the central Pacific Ocean while rearing.
Chinook juveniles can be as high as 85 million and an average Fraser spawning reaches 240,000 adult fish. These fish are the largest of the salmonids, with brightly spotted flanks, and can reach as high as 61 kg, although their size has diminished over the years, so that most adults are now 15 to 20 pounds. The sport fishery catches 20,000 to 30,000 pounds, while in the past the harvest reached as high as 800,000 a year: a lot of salmon, and most desired by sport and Indigenous fishers.
Overall, there are 30 species of trout and salmon around the world, Atlantic Salmon being the favoured fish farm species, with wild fish residing in the Atlantic Ocean from Norway to Canada. The many species includes several of trout, cutthroat, and brown trout. While cutthroat are small in number, they make up for it in being one of the bitiest fish in the sea. Bull trout and Dolly Varden make up the wild species, with escaped Atlantics making up the final spawning fish, small in numbers, but should not be in BC waters.
Then there are literally a hundred different other species, mostly bottom fish. These include Hatchetfish, Dragonfish, Lancetfish and Barracudinas. And finally, the Ocean Sunfish is a big, rare fish that looks all head and no body. They can be huge, reaching lengths of over 4 m and weights of up to 2.3 t. Yes, tonnes.
While I have listed many species in this review, it is just scratching the surface of all the fish in the Strait of Georgia. This is the reference book on our fish, and is a long, long book, so plenty of reading for the interested. It’s all here, no reason to go elsewhere.
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DC Reid has been a finalist or won 25 awards as an author and is a steadfast advocate for the Canadian literary community, having served as the president for the Federation of BC Writers, Victoria Book Prize Society, and League of Canadian Poets. He has won more than twenty awards for his work, including the 2023 Professional Outdoor Media Association of Canada gold medal for books for his memoir A Man and His River: a 25-year love affair with a wild island waterway. [Editor’s Note: DC Reid has reviewed books by Alan Haig-Brown, Lorne Fitch, and George Bumann for The British Columbia Review.]
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The British Columbia Review
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Formerly The Ormsby Review, The British Columbia Review is an on-line book review and journal service for BC writers and readers. The Advisory Board now consists of Jean Barman, Wade Davis, Robin Fisher, Barry Gough, Hugh Johnston, Kathy Mezei, Patricia Roy, and Graeme Wynn. Provincial Government Patron (since September 2018): Creative BC. Honorary Patron: Yosef Wosk. Scholarly Patron: SFU Graduate Liberal Studies. The British Columbia Review was founded in 2016 by Richard Mackie and Alan Twigg.
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