Herring staging on the east coast of the Rock
- Thread starter Cuba Libre
- Start date
Gill net takes the best quality 5 to 8 year olds and normally a ratio of 2 to 1 Females to males.
fish4all
Well-Known Member
Quality. I hear they are trying again today.
fish4all
Well-Known Member
Yet the yearly limit on chinook is still 30. Maybe start looking at your own fishery.
california
Well-Known Member
There are many contributors to the decline of Chinook salmon. What is being looked at harder than sport fishing right now with closure zones, likely reductions in limits and fishing opportunities? So with more sport fishing reductions coming, its appropriate also to look at a rape and pillage fishery removing tens of millions of fish that the rest of the ecosystem depends on right before they spawn. To top it off 90%+ of the biomass goes to West Coast reduction to make animal and fish feed, and the rest is sold as supermarket sushi in Japan. Absolutely mindless destruction of the ecosystem and waste for comparable little money. At least sport fishing generates significant economic benefits spread out among many individuals coast wide, not just a few wealthy license holders and processors.
fish4all
Well-Known Member
Seems like you are not open minded enough to understand or even consider understanding how commercial fisheries work, the science used to set the quotas, how the wealth is distributed or how it benefits coastal communities. Mindless destruction of an ecosystem is again laughable. You almost sound like one of those paid American protesters trying to destroy BC resource industries to further American interests.
As for what the sportsfish sector generates that is a different discussion for a different thread.
Klob
Well-Known Member
OK i'll bite how do commercial fisheries work? Particularly this one. I have seen the science to set the quotas be off either way by quite a lot. We got lucky in the 70's when it was almost wiped out in the straight. This fishery appears to be driven by politics and greed rather than sound science. The wealth you speak off is in the hands of a few. The rest of those employed are only there for a very short time. Hard to believe we are still debating whether or not this should be shut down.
Aces
Well-Known Member
What are the benefits exactly for coastal communities? Most of the boats aren't from the area where the herring are extracted from as far as i can see.
As far as the science to set quotas all i see is a fail, the stocks are a shadow of what they used to be.
seascene
Crew Member
PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE - DFO LACKS INFO TO MANAGE MAJOR FISH STOCKS
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/dfo-federal-audit-report-fish-stocks-collapse-1.3793197
Working on behalf of the federal auditor general, the commissioner looked at the management of wild fisheries in Canada between 2013 and 2016 and concluded DFO lacked the key information it needed to manage major fish stocks.....
Ocean Fish Stocks on “Verge of Collapse,” Says IRIN Report
https://www.newsecuritybeat.org/2017/.../ocean-fish-stocks-on-verge-collapse-irin-rep...
Global fish production approaching sustainable limit, UN warns ...
https://www.theguardian.com/.../global-fish-production-approaching-sustainable-limit...
Jul 7, 2016 - Around 90% of the world's stocks are now fully or overfished....
The global, let alone Pacific North West alarm bells are deafening for at least those listening. “Precautionary Principle” now making the rounds in fisheries management is in reality "Desperation Principal”.
wildmanyeah
Crew Member
Ask anyone that has worked for DFO, They will tell you they spent 35 years screaming at Ottawa to close fisheries or to amend the fisheries act ororor..... politicians move slow and it's never been good public policy to hurt businesses. The simple fact of the matter is Conservation is bad for business.
Thats why we need proportional representation at the ballot box so the focus will shift to what is right for the voters because as far as their political business goes thats who they are supposed to work for.
california
Well-Known Member
You sound just like an American alt right wing nut trying to deflect any criticism as being "paid protestors", right out of the NRA/republican playbook last used against the Florida students. If some rich American wants to pay me for protesting I'd gladly take it, unfortunately its not so, I'm just an unpaid Canadian concerned about the rape of the resource.
fish4all
Well-Known Member
Most of the vessels are based out of prince Rupert, Port Hardy, Sointula, Campbell River, Comox, Nanaimo and Vancouver all coastal communities. The majority of the catch flows through French creek and Vancouver employing shore workers, truckers, cold storage facilities, gear stores, shipyards, supply stores and others.
The test vessels today concentrate on the west side of the gulf coupled with daily spawn flights to asses what is in the area. Just the west side had a conservative estimate of 110,000tons. From the spawn flights they map the spawns and send divers down to asses the amount of spawn in the gulf and use that coupled with soundings to generate future harvest.
IMO the lack of chinooks in the gulf is a result of the destruction of spawning habitat, polluted rivers, Victoria spewing sewage into the gulf, fish farms ( pit lamping, and disease), over fishing and unreported catch.
Charter Tofino
Well-Known Member
@fish4all thanks for taking the time to post some accurate information from the commercial side and clear a few things up. Reviewing the thread there are a few numbers that are off, my own included.
I agree with all of the points that you identified as being some of the major issues facing our provinces Chinook and overall salmon stocks. However the herring fishery (yes and sportfishing) are a part of the issue. To repeat the point, DFOs assessments show recent stability in Herring stocks but neglect to look at the bigger picture.
Many feel that some questions need to be raised.
I agree with all of the points that you identified as being some of the major issues facing our provinces Chinook and overall salmon stocks. However the herring fishery (yes and sportfishing) are a part of the issue. To repeat the point, DFOs assessments show recent stability in Herring stocks but neglect to look at the bigger picture.
Many feel that some questions need to be raised.
- What are the historical numbers? Has technology in the last 4-5 decades increased our ability to more accurately assess stocks thus creating the false impression of more Herring? If stocks have increased, where are the inshore Herring that were commonly raked or dipped in the Salish Sea in the 80s and 90s? Is there any real data that can accurately measure the stocks pre 1940s-1960s when they began to crash? This is the basis of the management model and many have speculated the numbers.
- What are the cumulative negative effects of removing this large amount of biomass on the food web? Can we measure it and weigh it vs the benefits of the fishery?
- What are the effects of removing large amounts of fish pre spawn reducing egg and immature herring feed that some species rely on? Is this practice reducing age (size averages)?
- Is reducing our herring stocks causing some predators to focus more of their feeding on Salmon smolts? If so how much more? Can we measure it?
- Has the disappearance of Pilchards in recent years forced some species to rely more on herring? If so, do we need to adjust harvest rates to reflect this?
- What is the state of other baitfish (Needlefish etc) in the Salish Sea? If their numbers are down has the importance of Herring increased?
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wildmanyeah
Crew Member
Sardines (pilchards) have an inverse relationship with anchovies in the pacific north west. Typically when one vanishes the other shows up.
So what are anchovy numbers doing?
Fishmyster
Well-Known Member
Kelly. Another question missed is how much has natural environmental conditions been effecting the populations? When considering that all species of starfish coast wide died off recently without any commercial harvesting why would we consider herring stocks to not be effected in a similar way. I have not caught a sun star in four years. Tube snouts are another local species that totally crashed lately. Their populations are not monitored or considered but they can still be an indicator of ecological health.
Charter Tofino
Well-Known Member
One interesting thing about DFOs herring population assessments over the decades is that it seemingly shows little natural fluctuation like some other species. Most decreases and increases coincide with harvesting. Important and added nonetheless.
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wishiniwasfishin1
Well-Known Member
I think the point is if the overall ecological health of the Straight is in decline (for whatever reason), does it make sense to keep fishing a keystone species when there is in fact very little demand for herring and the repercussions are spread throughout a food chain that we are trying to preserve?
Prairie Locked
Well-Known Member
Those are kind of my thoughts exactly.
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