Top 10 Things to do in Cumberland, Vancouver Island

Reviewed By chc9533 - Hong Kong, China

My wife and I were fortunate to have been many places in Canada and visited many visitor centers. They are literally all good. But we found VIVC-CV to be the best of the very best. We came here seeking info about the herring spawn. There wasn’t too much public info out there and the help, guidance and support given by Glen and Kazumi were simply unbelievable, well above and beyond our expectations! The herring spawn was truly a nature’s spectacle. We want to share our experiences but TA doesn’t provide a good spot for posting this type of reviews which are not tied to one particular destination. As such, we decided to post it here. Hopefully people coming for herring spawn in future will also visit this site. We stayed in Comox for 14-nights, Feb 29 – Mar 14. The very first thing we did upon arrival was visiting Vancouver Island Visitor Centre, Comox Valley. We collected tons of helpful info and great advice. Highly recommend that you make VIVC to be your first stop! We also read DFO’s Fishery Notice religiously. They gave updates at least daily and upto 2-3 times/day at the peak period, giving us good pointers on where to go. Saw our first ever herring spawn on Mar 4. We were so glad to have arrived 4 days early and had the opportunity of exploring the potential spawning sites, getting ourselves familiar with the area, and doing some sight-seeing. Make sure you pick up a leaflet “Comox Valley Nature Viewing Guide”. We visited 14 of the 17 sites listed in the leaflet. Many of these later turned out to be spawning grounds and we had the benefits of knowing time needed to get there, where to park and the access trail to the beach, etc. We visited Denman Island on Mar 2 and leisurely checked out hotspots like Morning Beach, Fillongley and Boyle Point. Not only we enjoyed the discovery, such knowledge became invaluable assets afterwards. Between Mar 4-14, we viewed spawning from the following sites. It seemed to move in a North to South direction (see our map). - Kitty Coleman Beach - Seal Bay - Kye Bay - Point Holmes/Cape Lazo - Longbeak Point (Denman Island) - Morning Beach (Denman Island) - Fillongley (Denman Island) - Fanny Bay - Bowser - Qualicum Bay - Qualicum Beach - French Creek - Parksville Beach Most of our viewing was done on land, but we also chartered a boat with Adam of All in Sportfishing as viewings from a boat was different. There were also places only accessible by boat. We went out 4 times from Comox marina: - Mar 4: circumnavigated Denman Island, then returned north to Kitty Coleman and saw our first ever herring spawn ☺. - Mar 8: spent most of our time in upper Lambert Channel along Komas Bluff. - Mar 12: sailed south down Baynes Sound to Bowser. - Mar 13: sailed along the east coast of Hornby to Flora Isle, then checked out Bowser before returning to Comox. Our best viewings were: - Mar 4 at Kitty Coleman: we viewed from the boat in the morning and went back again to the beach in the afternoon. Fishery was not yet opened. Seabirds and marine mammals were in their full strength. It was an unbelievable sight and truly a nature’s spectacle. Viewings from the boat and from the beach were very different and we were so glad doing both on this day! - Mar 6 at Morning Beach: Fishery opened today. Over a hundred fishing boats were dotting the upper Lambert Channel. The spawning was more spread out, the feeding frenzy continued just not as concentrated as Mar 4 when the sky of Kitty Coleman was literally covered by birds. - Mar 7 at Longbeak Point: Spent the whole afternoon here watching the bald eagles went fishing. We lost count but there must be over a hundred eagles. Unlike catching salmon when one fish can feed the family, herrings were much smaller and the eagles had to work harder. They seemed like bombers launched wave after wave. A couple of river otters were also there fishing and playing. We had a wonderful afternoon and so did the eagles! - Mar 8 at Komas Bluff: There seemed to be less fish today and we didn’t see too many eagles around. Nonetheless, sea lions seemed to be working harder and we had some amazing photos taken from our boat which allowed us getting closer to the action. - Mar 11 & 14 at Qualicum Bay and Parksville Beach: While we continued seeing the spawn zone in the water, there seemed to be less fish in our inexperienced eyes. The gulls were mostly working on the roe at the beach. Sighting of numerous species of seabirds was highlights of these 2 days. According to DFO, seine fishery opened at 6:30am on Mar 6 and closed 26.5 hours later at 9am on Mar 7 after reaching a validated catch of 2,019 against the 2,025 ton quota. However, gillnet fishery took a much longer time. Gillnetters’ accumulated catches against their 7,215 ton quota were as follows: - Mar 6: 850t (est.) - Mar 7: 1,300t (est.) - Mar 8: 3,500t (est.) - Mar 9: 6,000t (est.) - Mar 10: 6,800t (est.) - Mar 11: 6,800t (est.) - Mar 12: 6,800t (est.) - Mar 13: 7,090t (est.) - Mar 14: 7,090t (est.) - Mar 15: 7,067t (validated) - Mar 16: 7,067t (validated) - Mar 17: 7,067t (validated, fishery closed) We are no experts, our thoughts from a layman’s perspective: - Gillnetters had the ability of catching more than 2,000t/day as seen on Mar 8 and 9. - Yet they seemed to struggle since Mar 10 and their catches almost stagnated. When fishery closed on Mar 17, they didn’t even hit their quota. Maybe there were good technical reasons behind, otherwise we were tempted to think the herrings en mass weren’t there?! - This almost coincided with our own observations. Since Mar 10, we have travelled up and down the coastline and found wildlife activities not as intense as before. Could it be that the predators were already full after days of feeding? We don’t know but it begs the questions on where were the herrings and more importantly, will they be coming back? - Please forgive us for our ignorance. We were merely a one-time observer and lack the insights of the locals. But from people we met, including the good ladies at our motel, many dog walkers on the beaches, the passionate photographers, and the friendly islanders at Denman/Hornby were all telling us the spawning seemed to be getting smaller by year. Hope DFO will do the right thing to protect the well being of the herrings, a small but such an important species in our ecology. The wildlife drawn by the herring spawn was spectacular. We are not birders, but we can still name the following birds: bald eagle, surf scoter, common goldeneye, great blue heron, bufflehead, long-tailed duck, mallard, greater scaup, common loon, red-necked grebe, brant goose, double-crested cormorant, brandt’s cormorant, dunlin, black oystercatcher, American wigeon, northern pintail, common merganser, hooded merganser, killdeer, snow goose, greater white-fronted geese, mew gull, glaucous-winged gull – thanks to the ebird app! There were birds that we couldn’t ID and surely we must have missed some others. When we finally returned to Vancouver, the world has turned into a very different place. We both left YVR on Mar 17. My old friend flew home to Toronto and I departed for Auckland. Without prior knowledge, I took literally the last Air Canada flight that landed in Auckland 14 hours before NZ closed its border! We counted our blessing of seeing what we saw, a special thanks again to Glenn for his guidance, much appreciated!