Pacific herring are an essential component of the marine food web. So, when their populations began to decline in the late 1970s, several other key species, like salmon, that rely on herring as a food source also saw dramatic declines in their populations. A group of local volunteers, calling themselves the Squamish Streamkeepers, responded to the crisis by investigating potential reasons for the decline in local herring stocks in Howe Sound, near Squamish, BC, and False Creek, near Vancouver, BC.