CFAX 1070: Depleted Herring Fishing

March 12, 2020

Adam Stirling interviews Ian McAllister about the Strait of Georgia industrial herring fishery.

Adam Stirling of CFAX interviews Ian McAllister on the herring fishery in the strait of georgia

Adam Stirling of CFAX interviews Ian McAllister on the herring fishery in the strait of georgia

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Pacific herring are a vital, foundational part of maintaining the structure and function of British Columbia’s marine food web. As a keystone species, a multitude of other species rely on Pacific herring, and the eggs they lay when they spawn, to sustain their diets. Herring is a primary food source for Chinook and Coho salmon (keystone species themselves) as well as larger predators like seals and whales. ⁠
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Another keystone, and recently recovering species, that may rely on the annual return of Pacific herring to coastal waters is the sea otter. While sea otters’ teeth are adapted for crushing hard-shelled invertebrates such as clams, urchins, and crabs, they join the annual herring feast, consuming the roe off of kelp and seaweeds. This spring, our field team observed a raft of sea otters, including mothers with some of the first pups of the season, foraging on herring roe laid on eelgrass. Along with the sea otters, black bears, coastal wolves, grey whales, river otters and countless marine birds joined in on the feast. ⁠
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#MarineMonday #BIGlittleFish #Herring #PacificHerring #StraitofGeorgia #HerringSpawn #SeaOtter

Photo by @sychdi

Today is #EarthHour! Join us and millions around the world in a unified action and turn off your lights at 8pm local time. Together we can send a strong message to governments, businesses and individuals that we need change and accountability for our ecological footprint. Use this day to engage in discourse with your community on ways to reduce your footprint in everyday life - which can be as easy as turning off your lights! 🌎 💡

Footage by @iantmcallister

The herring season is wrapping up. The highly contested commercial gillnet and seine roe herring fisheries have been closed to harvest in the Strait of Georgia (SoG) for the 2023 season. The commercial gillnet fishery opened on March 14, 2023 and closed on March 16, 2023. According to a Fisheries Notice from DFO (FN0293-COMMERCIAL - Herring - Roe: Strait of Georgia - Bulletin #27 - March 23, 2023), the gillnet fishery overharvested herring by nearly 100 tons, exceeding the 2,611 ton quota with validated catches totalling 2,703.992 tons. Meanwhile, the seine fishery opened on March 8, 2023 and closed on March 13, 2023, and also over harvested their quota of Pacific herring. The validated catch for the seine fishery is 2,320.714 tons of the 2,304 ton catch target.

In total, a 6,625 ton quota (10% harvest rate) was split between Food Social and Ceremonial (FSC), Food and Bait, Special Use, and Roe herring opportunities (gillnet and seine gear types) in the SoG for the 2022/2023 fishing season. Despite a 50% reduction in the quota since last year, DFO science projects further declines in the spawning biomass for Pacific herring in the SoG as mentioned in their 2022/2023 Integrated Fisheries Management Plan. Between 2020 and 2022, spawning biomass saw a significant decline of 26%. Pacific Wild continues to advocate for a complete moratorium on the commercial exploitation of Pacific herring in B.C. excluding the inherent right of Indigenous harvest of herring in spawn on kelp (SOK) fisheries and for FSC opportunities.

#BIGlittleFish #Herring #PacificHerring #StraitofGeorgia #HerringSpawn

Footage by: @iantmcallister

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Image by @saltayseawitch

Happy #InternationalSealDay! 🌊🦭 These two Northern elephant seals are making their voices heard in the Pacific Northwest, reminding us of the importance of protecting the marine environment they call home.

Did you know that these magnificent creatures were once hunted to near extinction in the 1800s for their blubber, which was used for lamp oils? Today, thanks to conservation efforts, their populations are recovering, but they still face threats from climate change, pollution, and habitat loss. Let’s celebrate these amazing animals and work towards a brighter future for them and their habitats.

#marineconservation #elephantseals

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