Commercial fishing boats on the B.C. coast have returned to their home ports after a successful spring herring roe fishery in the Strait of Georgia off Vancouver Island, but opponents of the catch are already gearing up for next season.
The threat of overfishing and the impact a herring population collapse could have on British Columbia91裸聊视频檚 marine ecosystem, particularly chinook salmon and southern resident killer whales, has conservation, environmental and some Indigenous groups demanding an indefinite suspension of the fishery.
91裸聊视频淚t91裸聊视频檚 just a matter of time before the Strait of Georgia herring collapses and all those boats are forced to wait at the dock,91裸聊视频� said Ian McAllister, executive director of Pacific Wild, which called for the suspension of the roe herring fishery this year.
91裸聊视频淚f you left that 20,000 tons of herring in the water it could be the catalyst to rebuild stocks to allow chinook salmon to recover, to allow the starving southern resident killer whales to have enough food.91裸聊视频�
But Department of Fisheries and Oceans scientists say the herring population in the Strait of Georgia is the healthiest it91裸聊视频檚 been in almost 70 years, which is the major reason it approved a roe fishery this year.
91裸聊视频淚91裸聊视频檓 looking at a time series that goes back to 1950,91裸聊视频� said Neil Davis, the department91裸聊视频檚 resource management director. 91裸聊视频淭hey91裸聊视频檙e as high as they91裸聊视频檝e been in that whole time series.91裸聊视频�
Herring roe is a sushi delicacy in Japan, but the tiny silver fish is also ground into food for farmed salmon and other fish, as well as fertilizer. Herring also feed the marine ecosystem as a diet staple for salmon, seals, sea lions, sea birds and humpback whales.
The Fisheries Department heard the concerns of conservation and citizens groups about over fishing of herring and protecting the marine ecosystem, but the scientific data and meetings with industry and local advocates resulted in the decision to open a roe fishery, Davis said.
91裸聊视频淥ther things feed on herring: seals, sea lions, salmon, who in turn are prey for things like killer whales,91裸聊视频� said Davis. 91裸聊视频淭hat91裸聊视频檚 one concern we91裸聊视频檝e heard from a number of groups. My response to that is that our first job in managing the resource is to make sure we91裸聊视频檙e managing it in a fashion that91裸聊视频檚 sustainable and conserves the resource long term.91裸聊视频�
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Commercial roe fisheries on the west coast of Vancouver Island, the central coast, and off the Haida Gwaii and Prince Rupert coasts were not held this year due to insufficient stocks.
But Fisheries and Oceans projected a spawning biomass in the Strait of Georgia for 2019 of about 138,000 tonnes and set the total allowable catch for commercial fisheries at just under 29,000 tonnes. The total catch to date in the Strait of Georgia roe fishery for both seine and gillnet fishery combined is about 15,800 tonnes, Fisheries said Wednesday.
Commercial fisherman Darrel McEachern of Maple Ridge said the season went well for him.
91裸聊视频淲e got ours. We were pleased. DFO does a good job, what else can you say,91裸聊视频� he said.
McEachern, 72, said he has been fishing herring since 1973 and this spring they were abundant and the roe catch will be profitable. He said he spent about seven days aboard a 17-metre gillnet packer chasing herring in the Strait of Georgia with other members of his family.
Grant Scott, president of Conservancy Hornby Island, said he could see the seine boats and gillnetters pulling in herring last month from his home on the island, about 200 kilometres north east of Victoria.
Scott said the community celebrates the arrival of the herring with a festival in March, but he views the fishing fleet with concern.
91裸聊视频淭his is the last one of the five or six major spawn areas really from Alaska to Mexico,91裸聊视频� he said. 91裸聊视频淭o think they are managing the last one the way they managed the other five, and it all resulted in over-fishing and the eventual collapse, we just find it sad and a tragedy.91裸聊视频�
He said 75,000 people signed a petition calling for an end to the herring fishery in the Strait of Georgia.
Scott said the disappointment of this year91裸聊视频檚 roe fishery will not deter his group from pushing for changes during the coming federal election campaign and prior to a new herring season.
91裸聊视频淲e91裸聊视频檙e going to write an alternate, truly ecosystem-based herring management plan that we hope to have put together by scientists that we want to present to the public next year when DFO brings out their herring forecast,91裸聊视频� he said.
Jaclyn Cleary, head of the Pacific region91裸聊视频檚 herring stock assessment program for Fisheries and Oceans, said there are differing opinions, even among scientists, about whether there should be a fishery for forage species, such as herring.
She said much of the debate she heard this year from people opposed to the herring fishery involved comments about the connections between herring and declining salmon populations.
91裸聊视频淲e know the importance of herring for chinook based on diet studies,91裸聊视频� Cleary said. 91裸聊视频淲e also know that adult herring aren91裸聊视频檛 in the Strait of Georgia year round. If the science were that simple there wouldn91裸聊视频檛 be a debate. It91裸聊视频檚 not that simple. We don91裸聊视频檛 see these clear relationships between chinook biomass and herring biomass in the Strait of Georgia.91裸聊视频�
Judith Sayers, president of the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council, said there was no commercial herring fishery on the west coast of Vancouver Island and her Indigenous groups has suggested on ongoing closure for the next three to five years to allow stocks to rebuild.
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Dirk Meissner, The Canadian Press
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