Fishmyster
Well-Known Member
Yes we all have personal beliefs that vary. Thanks for the discussion. Please do not take offence to mine.
Well I’m not convinced closing farms or stopping herring fisheries will cause enough benefit to salmon to warrant eliminating these industries. Together these industries may contribute more to the economy than just sportfishng. People need jobs! What other sustainable industry do you recommend the farmers and fishermen go to if their present work was eliminated? Sportfishing isn’t much of an option anymore!
The Strait of Georgia is mainly what we are talking about here, and the fishery is worth at $500 per ton $11.5 million. At 300 per ton its about $8million. Thats in an economy with a GDP of $221 Billion for the province, 1.8 Trillion for the country. So yes it will effect a small number of fisherman, but it pales in comparison in impact how cuts to forestry, or mechanization of agriculture or any number of changes to the economy through technological change imapact jobs. The fish farming industry has more jobs and value to be sure, and why it likely will never be forced off the water by government, technological change and consumer sentiment will need to do that. No one action will be a silver bullet, but we know there are tens of millions of smolts that go into the strait, and disappear as young fish. I know you want us to believe there is only one cause, water chemistry and nothing else matter, and it well may be part of the puzzle, but I personally believe there are many factors, and removing 20% of the herring biomass just before it spawns, effectively reducing 20% of a major potential source of food for small organisms including young salmon (over a trillion eggs, huge numbers of larvae and juvenile herring) has the potential to effect the ecosystem. For such a small value fishery, I personally don't see the benefit to potential cost trade off to be favourable.
From 2017, I havent seen for 2018. This is where i get the 20%nfrom a DFO representative. You personally figured out how much stock there is? Sounds like YOUR opinion.Well as stated that is your opinion. I’m on the water for the last 4 days running up and down the straight and I can tell you there is far more than 120,000 tons in the gulf. The test boats found that in 2 days without even looking hard. The harvest is far below 20% and the value is far higher than $500. So if you are going to argue, argue facts and not what you “personally believe”.
Well as stated that is your opinion. I’m on the water for the last 4 days running up and down the straight and I can tell you there is far more than 120,000 tons in the gulf. The test boats found that in 2 days without even looking hard. The harvest is far below 20% and the value is far higher than $500. So if you are going to argue, argue facts and not what you “personally believe”.
Is it just your opinion that there is far more than 120,000 tons in the gulf or can you point us to some posted data to check out. Where are the facts to support a value far higher than $500.00 per ton so we can reference? Thanks for the info and I would like to point out in California they cap the take at up to 5% of the spawners based on data and precautionary principle.Well as stated that is your opinion. I’m on the water for the last 4 days running up and down the straight and I can tell you there is far more than 120,000 tons in the gulf. The test boats found that in 2 days without even looking hard. The harvest is far below 20% and the value is far higher than $500. So if you are going to argue, argue facts and not what you “personally believe”.
From 2017, I havent seen for 2018. This is where i get the 20%nfrom a DFO representative. You personally figured out how much stock there is? Sounds like YOUR opinion.
Brenda Spence, resource manager with Fisheries and Oceans Canada, monitored the fishery aboard the 19-metre Canadian Coast Guard vessel, Neocaligus. “Stocks are really healthy this year,” she said. “The forecast is for near-historic highs.”
Gillnetters are expected to harvest 13,763 tonnes while the seine fleet takes 11,805 tonnes in the Strait of Georgia. Combined, that is 8,025 tonnes more than last year. Spence said the maximum harvest rate is 20 per cent of the projected number of spawners.
And from a 2016 Article in Times colonist:
Bill Forbes, of Lasqueti Fishing Co. Ltd., said from Nanoose that plants are paying about $300 per ton, with a possibility of an additional $50 per ton down the road, for seine-caught herring. Gillnetters are commanding about $500 per ton because they can adjust the size of their nets to target larger fish.
And from a 2017 Vancouver sun article that supports the 2016 one:
And while the Japanese aren’t paying what they did for the roe in the late 1970s to the late 1990s — prices to fishermen have dropped from a high of about $5,000 per tonne to several hundred dollars — the fishery helps to maintain the infrastructure of the industry, including its processing facilities.
SO the take of up to 20% and $300-$500 per ton are my opinion? Maybe you should take your own advice.
California.
Do you think herring stock abundancies in the straight were consistent pre fishing? If so how is it that other forage species that are not fished vary so much?
None of it matters unless you guys plan to start whaleing up again.
Humpback whale populations have been and are currently increasing at a pretty good rate.
In order to allow the increase we can’t be taking out any forage fish period.
There’s people in Alaska asking to start whaling back up. Seriously
Fish4all what is the average price boats will receive per ton, including seine caught fish?
When you say jimmy pays his boats $300 per ton do you mean he pays that to boats fishing his quota?
I understand your argument for balance instead of historical highs but this can’t be viewed in the same light as every other fishery. There are too many species reliant on herring that currently need every bit of help they can get. This isn’t a fix all, it’s a small step in a long ladder of issues.
How do you figure quota will be left in the water? Gillnetters are close to filling their quota and the seine boats just opened.
And salmon, and rockfish, and lings, and well, pretty much anything that eats herring eggs, larvae, juveniles or adults, or eats anything that depends on the herring (SRKW)!Good news for the herring if that's correct.