I heard that the herring biomass is unbelievable this year, anyone else heard of this? they had an opening for food and bait for 100 tonne?
Live there and never heard a thing.
Actually this a fairy well manage fishery over all....Great, Herring show a recovery and open up the gates, thanks DFO. Hey I heard theres more Seals around too maybe we could open up a good old Seal hunt!!
Actually, IN MY OPINION, this is very much not a very well managed fishery in its current state.
It is currently an absolute sham that is purely politically motivated. It is not based on enough scientific evidence and study. Who the hell am I to be saying this?! Well, I am one guy who picked up the phone and called DFO and asked some direct questions about how they made the decisions last year for the food, bait and roe fisheries.
Early on in the 1 hour conversation: the words 'well, I can't speak to that because I am not a scientist' came across the phone...and yet this person was responsible for managing this fishery. He did not know anything about the lifespan of herring....that they return to spawn in their home region after 4 years and then can return every single year for the next dozen(if we let them live that long). He knew very little about herring, is provided with far to little data to base his decisions on,( in both my and his own opinion) and yet has the incredibly difficult responsibility of managing the stock. Talk about setting someone up for failure! And the herring, salmon, orca, fish, seals, and all else that is built off the herring will pay the price. I feel sorry for this guy who is given very few tools to work with and then expected to make the right call. He admitted that the 100,000 tonne biomass that the stock supposedly stayed at last year despite lots of fishing, was purely estimates....based on very limited data.
So, no this is not a fairly well managed fishery and I am doubting that wish DFO cuts, that any more scientists are studying the herring than before. He basically said that Salmon research gets all the budget. Too bad they don't connect the amount of salmon food with the amount of salmon. It is the epitome of taking now at the expense of future generations.
I approached Roger for permission to do some projects with the Salish Sea Herring Enhancement Society. We have done projects to help herring spawn...in particular trying to have them not spawn on creosote and die. We even took samples of dead eggs in Saanich Inlet on poles to show them how much they should be taking note of this problem, which is widespread in BC. There were billions in that bay alone that died(but still lots on the good stuff!! eel grass, seaweed).
IF DFO wants to allow the commercial sector to harvest so much....then they need to invest in enhancement....otherwise we will be reading about an absolute crash within a few years.
Don't take my word though:
Ask some questions of your own:
A/Herring Resource Manager | Gestionnaire des ressources - hareng
Fisheries and Aquaculture Management | Gestion des pêches et de l'aquaculture
Fisheries and Oceans Canada | Pêches et Océans Canada
roger.kanno@dfo-mpo.gc.ca
604-666-7851 | Facsimile/Télécopieur 604-666-9136
Government of Canada | Gouvernement du Canada
Lots of Herring in Howe Sound now it's quite the story about bringing them back too busy now to give details maybe later.I agree with your assesment as I always wonder why there are no herring to speak of in the Burrard Inlet, Howe Sound area.
Actually, IN MY OPINION, this is very much not a very well managed fishery in its current state.
It is currently an absolute sham that is purely politically motivated. It is not based on enough scientific evidence and study. Who the hell am I to be saying this?! Well, I am one guy who picked up the phone and called DFO and asked some direct questions about how they made the decisions last year for the food, bait and roe fisheries.
Early on in the 1 hour conversation: the words 'well, I can't speak to that because I am not a scientist' came across the phone...and yet this person was responsible for managing this fishery. He did not know anything about the lifespan of herring....that they return to spawn in their home region after 4 years and then can return every single year for the next dozen(if we let them live that long). He knew very little about herring, is provided with far to little data to base his decisions on,( in both my and his own opinion) and yet has the incredibly difficult responsibility of managing the stock. Talk about setting someone up for failure! And the herring, salmon, orca, fish, seals, and all else that is built off the herring will pay the price. I feel sorry for this guy who is given very few tools to work with and then expected to make the right call. He admitted that the 100,000 tonne biomass that the stock supposedly stayed at last year despite lots of fishing, was purely estimates....based on very limited data.
So, no this is not a fairly well managed fishery and I am doubting that wish DFO cuts, that any more scientists are studying the herring than before. He basically said that Salmon research gets all the budget. Too bad they don't connect the amount of salmon food with the amount of salmon. It is the epitome of taking now at the expense of future generations.
I approached Roger for permission to do some projects with the Salish Sea Herring Enhancement Society. We have done projects to help herring spawn...in particular trying to have them not spawn on creosote and die. We even took samples of dead eggs in Saanich Inlet on poles to show them how much they should be taking note of this problem, which is widespread in BC. There were billions in that bay alone that died(but still lots on the good stuff!! eel grass, seaweed).
IF DFO wants to allow the commercial sector to harvest so much....then they need to invest in enhancement....otherwise we will be reading about an absolute crash within a few years.
Don't take my word though:
Ask some questions of your own:
A/Herring Resource Manager | Gestionnaire des ressources - hareng
Fisheries and Aquaculture Management | Gestion des pêches et de l'aquaculture
Fisheries and Oceans Canada | Pêches et Océans Canada
roger.kanno@dfo-mpo.gc.ca
604-666-7851 | Facsimile/Télécopieur 604-666-9136
Government of Canada | Gouvernement du Canada
You picked up the phone and got someone at dfo and talked for a hour and now your a expert?
hehehehe,
some of you guys make me laugh.
get some real facts and science before blowing your horn !!!
the roe herring industry is a model of success the past 20 yrs.
Stocks are coming back all over the coast , a small fraction of bio mass is allowed to be fished and then the industry pays to have divers stake out grids in the harvest areas and non harvest areas to see the spawn rates etc.
unfortuantely the economy in japan and the diet there has changed and the market is in the tank.
licenced quota holders now want to develop new markets , eg. salted euro style herring , roll mops , bait herring , food herring , dried herring , pickled herring ,grind it up herring for fish farms etc. it was and still can be a good INDUSTRY and make west coast families a living.