North Shore, BC, Naturopath, Jonn Matsen, speaking to a HANS audience on October 20 in Burnaby, used herring in the Howe Sound to explain a simple but important concept of self-healing. His idea is to clarify the immediate problem, fix that problem, and the body will heal itself.

Pay attention all fishermen, because this special man and his Squamish Stream Keepers deserve a huge appreciation, not just for understanding how to fix humans, but for the unheard of and unexpected result of bringing dolphins to the Howe Sound. This is a beautiful story, well worth sharing.

I'm not the healer, Jonn Matsen told his Burnaby audience, October 20th. All I'm doing is getting [my patient's] body to heal themselves. The body is self-healing. Biological systems are self-healing. I'm not doing much other than just guiding them, hopefully in the right way so that they can heal themselves quickly. The minimum amount of drugs, the better.

Matsen shared what he focuses on in his precious spare time. He co-ordinates the all-volunteer Squamish Stream Keepers.

Dolphins came to the Howe Sound on the west coast of British Columbia for the first time this past year. Many were shocked, and stumped as to why this happened. Perhaps we've found a reason.

The beautiful Howe Sound used to be full of herring, salmon and rock cod when Matsen was a boy, and a fond memory was always catching the huge salmon that came into the Squamish River. Then, years passed, an education intervened and, suddenly, those fish weren't there anymore.

The Stream Keepers, with some funding from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), went to investigate. They found out that the Howe Sound is full of plankton. But, salmon can't eat plankton because plankton is too small. They do eat herring, though. But where are the herring?

The next part of the puzzle was to research where the herring had gone. They came across a huge dock built at Squamish terminals in 1972? the same year, coincidentally, that the herring had started to dramatically decline. The Stream Keepers went under the dock and found hundreds of thousands of dead herring roe on the creosote pilings. This was the problem.



There is a little bit of kelp nearby. Just enough to keep the herring from being completely wiped out altogether. After initial experiments, they came across a weed control material they could use to wrap the pilings with. They wrapped them?with presumably great effort?and were blessed with millions and millions of healthy herring eggs.

In February 2008, the abundance of birds feasting on the herring told them that their efforts were successful.



For one of the rare times in history, the Howe Sound has now seen the gray whale. Lions Bay, close by, documented 250 dolphins in May 2010. Seals, coho salmon, chinook, and gray whales, and they all eat … herring.

Matsen expects the herring run to double every year for the next three to four years, until it reaches its maximum capacity.

See how easy it is to fix the biological system? You find the problem, you fix it, and it does the rest. Find the weak link and they do the healing, and it's the same with people. That's why we get these miracles.

This very touching and humbling story is the preamble for Dr. Jonn Matsen's lecture, which further explains that this is how it is with humans, too. Find the weak link and let the body do the healing.

If you are interested in the rest of Dr. Matsen's lecture, you can purchase a DVD of this lecture from the HANS office at 604-435-0512 for $15. If you are interested in joining HANS and becoming a member, you are entitled to one free gift of information at the time of joining. Just indicate that this is your choice of free gift.

The same applies for anyone renewing their membership, which can be done online at www.hans.org.

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