Herring staging on the east coast of the Rock

[Aces]

Answer: CANFISCO - Jimmy and the boys have some pull.

Hence the lobbying that I’ve been preaching about

 

[terrin]

The conservation NGOs that many have become skeptical of (justified in some cases) are really our best bet. The majority of the time they truly want the best for the environment and this is where we need to find common ground. Their campaign skills can't be denied. I've sent out some emails to them to get the discussion going. Below is the guts of what I sent.





The 2018 Herring quota in the Salish Sea is 23,000 tons for the commercial fleet. That is 46 million pounds of a keystone species being removed from the ecosystem in a time of downward spiralling Salmon returns, starving Orcas, severe restrictions put on other industries and millions of dollars being spent on studies into the causes. How is this possible? How has this fishery continued to quietly remove a huge portion of our ecosystems most important food source for the financial gain of relatively few individuals? This fishery should have been shut down decades ago as one of the first major efforts to save our struggling coastal ecosystem and Salmon stocks.

To further this…

• Much of the recent blame for struggling Salmon and more specifically Chinook Salmon stocks has focused on the quickly rising Sea Lion and Seal populations. Studies have shown that up to 40% of juvenile Chinook are being predated on by Harbour Seals in some Salish Sea estuary environments. Many people have begun to discuss the need for culls while ignoring the fact that we are removing their main food source (and Chinooks Salmon’s) and forcing them to find alternatives.

• DFO has claimed their current quotas and harvest models are stable but it is clear this entails stability at a historically low range. I would be confident to argue that their “historic levels” are only accurate to the levels post fishery collapse during the 1960s and 1970s that resulted in a complete coast wide herring fishery closure. Think about that. A resource that was shutdown to harvesting in the 1960s and 1970s to protect the environment yet is still fully operational in 2018. This rarity is not a glimmer of hope for resources but a massive oversight by DFO. The issue here is that it will be tough to find accurate supporting data of Herring biomass levels from 1900-1930s before a major commercial fishing effort.

• Pilchards had become a major food staple to a number of species on our coast from the late 1990s to 2011. Pilchards suddenly and unexpectedly disappeared from the coast almost overnight leaving many species scrambling to switch back to herring or whatever alternative was available, such as the seal example above. Although there was a major commercial fishery developing by 2011, this disappearance is likely to blame on natural factors as Pilchards have mysteriously come and gone from our coast multiple times in the last decade. Chinook salmon stocks seemed to take a hit at this time and there was a noticeable downward change in size averages on the south coast. This lack of Pilchards as a food source only solidifies the importance of health Herring stocks.

• While this fishery employees relatively few in the big scheme of things, it is still a major employer of the dwindling commercial fleet on the coast. Commercial fishing has a lot of power behind the scenes but must turn it’s focus to only the most sustainable fisheries and this is not one of them. Empathy goes out to those trying to hold onto heritage and history working in the commercial industry to provide for their families but enough is enough. Sustainable business in a number of industries such as sports fishing and whale watching are being forced to close while commercial captains and quota owners make hundreds of thousands of dollars in weeks on the back of this keystone species.

In California they only allow a maximum of 5% of the spawners to be harvested. They follow what is known as "The Precautionery Principle". Regarding herring as forage, it has been identified as a key forage species in the California Current Ecosystem. However, due to the complexity of this system and biological interactions, it is difficult to quantify all predator/prey relationships or to quantify all oceanic conditions and factors that affect herring recruitment and persistence in the spawning population. As a result, the Department manages for herring’s importance as a forage species by recommending conservative harvest percentages. Since 2010, as a conservation safeguard, the Department has recommended harvest percentages for herring at or below five percent of the most current spawning biomass estimate. This precautionary management approach has allowed, on average, more than 95 percent of the spawning stock (which represents only the portion of the total stock that leaves oceanic waters to spawn during a given season) to go unfished and remain available as forage or to meet other ecosystem functions, including stock rebuilding.

 

[Charter Tofino]

In California they only allow a maximum of 5% of the spawners to be harvested. They follow what is known as "The Precautionery Principle". Regarding herring as forage, it has been identified as a key forage species in the California Current Ecosystem. However, due to the complexity of this system and biological interactions, it is difficult to quantify all predator/prey relationships or to quantify all oceanic conditions and factors that affect herring recruitment and persistence in the spawning population. As a result, the Department manages for herring’s importance as a forage species by recommending conservative harvest percentages. Since 2010, as a conservation safeguard, the Department has recommended harvest percentages for herring at or below five percent of the most current spawning biomass estimate. This precautionary management approach has allowed, on average, more than 95 percent of the spawning stock (which represents only the portion of the total stock that leaves oceanic waters to spawn during a given season) to go unfished and remain available as forage or to meet other ecosystem functions, including stock rebuilding.

Great post. I’d been looking for a relateable management example to take to the table and this is perfect.

 

[Prairie Locked]

I'm enjoying looking at the commercial fleet currently on Marine Traffic. I can count 46 commercial boats right now between Parksville and the north end of Denman with the majority (21) working off the east end of Bowser. What a joke.

https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:-124.7/centery:49.4/zoom:11

 

[Stizzla]

Thanks for the update

I'm enjoying looking at the commercial fleet currently on Marine Traffic. I can count 46 commercial boats right now between Parksville and the north end of Denman with the majority (21) working off the east end of Bowser. What a joke.

https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:-124.7/centery:49.4/zoom:11

 

[tubber]

Great post. I’d been looking for a relateable management example to take to the table and this is perfect.

Be prepared for them to argue that they are only taking 5% in BC, despite the huge percentage of Gulf herring being caught. I wonder what it is? 23000/??????

 

[spring time]

Those are probably self packers or live boards the seines haven’t opened yet

 

[spring time]

Here are the quotas

GILL NET:
---------
Quotas:
Prince Rupert 1,528 tons
Strait of Georgia 11,177 tons

Average quota per licence:
10.371 tons

Gill Net applications have been entered for the following areas:

AREA----------------------------IDEAL-----ENTERED
Prince Rupert--------------------147-----------0
Strait of Georgia----------------1078--------218
Inactive--------------------------------------42

Total----------------------------1225--------218


Total number of gill net licences: 1267
(42 gillnet licences are inactive held by DFO inventory)


SEINE:
------
Quotas:
Prince Rupert 730 tons
Strait of Georgia 9,813 tons (Initial SOG SN quota was 10,676 tons prior to
Food and Bait selections)

Average quota per licence:
45.444 tons

 

[california]

Be prepared for them to argue that they are only taking 5% in BC, despite the huge percentage of Gulf herring being caught. I wonder what it is? 23000/??????

I have seen estimates of 160,000 tons in the strait, if that is true then about 15% is being taken. That may be an underestimate as wouldnt be surpriswd they overestimate the population to allow more quota. Seiners often wipe out local populations, as they dont take 15% evenly throughout the strait. Leave them alone to rebuild for a few years to see what it does for salmon and SRKW

 

[islander55]

Can anyone tell me how to look up the amount of herring there is between nanaimo and yellow point

 

[ILHG]

The First Nations in Haida Gwaii put a stop to this sh!#. That's probably why there is so much wild life staffed there to feed.

The Haida nation harvest the roe after and only for personal use.

 

[california]

The First Nations in Haida Gwaii put a stop to this sh!#. That's probably why there is so much wild life staffed there to feed.

The Haida nation harvest the roe after and only for personal use.

That's the only type of harvest that should be allowed. The female herring are allowed to spawn again. In this wasteful fishery less than 10% of those 23,000 Tons they will be taking, so perhaps 2,000 Tons will be eggs. The other 21,000 tons of males and discarded female carcasses will be ground up for fish and animal feed. Complete waste. If they get $500 per ton (they often get less) the whole harvest is worth 11.5 Million dollars. With all the money being spent on enhancement, helping the SRKW, that is a drop in the bucket. Lost sport fishing economic activity is probably more than 11.5 million. We remove trillions of eggs, Billions of larvae, and tens of millions of fish that are a foundation of the food chain from the ecosystem for almost nothing. And we wonder why the strait is a mess.

 

[Aces]

The First Nations in Haida Gwaii put a stop to this sh!#. That's probably why there is so much wild life staffed there to feed.

The Haida nation harvest the roe after and only for personal use.

Same as our area. The boys are setting up their tree branches and kelp right now to get some eggs to eat

 

[finaddict]

All of the herring that is caught for roe is processed and then frozen. after that it is sold and rendered into herring meal. That herring meal is then sold to Skretting and EWOS for fish food pellets. Take one guess where ALL 20,700 tons is headed.........

 

[Sangstercraft]

All of the herring that is caught for roe is processed and then frozen. after that it is sold and rendered into herring meal. That herring meal is then sold to Skretting and EWOS for fish food pellets. Take one guess where ALL 20,700 tons is headed.........

Stealing wild salmon's food, and giving it to farmed salmon.. who are then infecting wild salmon with viruses and lice. Wild salmon decline, price goes up, fish farmers make more money. You almost couldn't make this up!

 

[Fishmyster]

That's the only type of harvest that should be allowed. The female herring are allowed to spawn again. In this wasteful fishery less than 10% of those 23,000 Tons they will be taking, so perhaps 2,000 Tons will be eggs. The other 21,000 tons of males and discarded female carcasses will be ground up for fish and animal feed. Complete waste. If they get $500 per ton (they often get less) the whole harvest is worth 11.5 Million dollars. With all the money being spent on enhancement, helping the SRKW, that is a drop in the bucket. Lost sport fishing economic activity is probably more than 11.5 million. We remove trillions of eggs, Billions of larvae, and tens of millions of fish that are a foundation of the food chain from the ecosystem for almost nothing. And we wonder why the strait is a mess.

Just for the sake of discussion I have some questions for your post.
You assessment of herring harvest worth does seem to miss some value. The fisherman might only make $11.5 million but how much does the fish meal processors generate from there processing efforts? There must also be transport and labour costs generated before the product reaches the fish and animal farms? Once these costs are applied the revenue generated from the herring fishery would be much higher than you have assessed would it not?
Another common theme I hear on this forum is to let leave the herring alone to rebuild as they are the foundation of the ecosystem. Well in Barclay sound they only fish herring in the east side of the sound. Vernon to Rainy bay is not raped every year like Main bay or the Maggie river area yet the the herring spawn still appears to be weaker in these areas. How is it that the harvested areas still produce herring and the areas left alone do not produce as much as past years?
Another question is if herring are the foundation of ecology how do they grow in biomass? What do they eat? Would their food source not be closer to the foundation of ecology?

 

[california]

Just for the sake of discussion I have some questions for your post.
You assessment of herring harvest worth does seem to miss some value. The fisherman might only make $11.5 million but how much does the fish meal processors generate from there processing efforts? There must also be transport and labour costs generated before the product reaches the fish and animal farms? Once these costs are applied the revenue generated from the herring fishery would be much higher than you have assessed would it not?

That is true, you can try to apply spinoff or multiplier effects (politicians always do when quoting benefits) but they are uncertain. The suppliers of fish feed will find sources to make their food irrespective of this fishery, through other sources. So to say they wont make money because they don't have this particular source or byproduct isn't necessarily true. This large volume of product at one time may depress prices for other producers reducing their profits. Spin offs are hard to measure all of, so landed value is a direct measure of an increased value to the economy, or cost just as if measuring costs it should be direct costs, like lost revenue from fishing charters or whale watching, not how lower revenue for the charter captain means he doesn't spend money on other non-related things.

Another common theme I hear on this forum is to let leave the herring alone to rebuild as they are the foundation of the ecosystem. Well in Barclay sound they only fish herring in the east side of the sound. Vernon to Rainy bay is not raped every year like Main bay or the Maggie river area yet the the herring spawn still appears to be weaker in these areas. How is it that the harvested areas still produce herring and the areas left alone do not produce as much as past years?

I dont know the history of those bays, but there are lots of places on the coast where the local populations were wiped out, and may never, or take a long time to come back, whereas others had enough escapees to reseed the area. An excerpt from the book
British Columbia: A Natural History of Its Origins, Ecology, and Diversity, quotes Jeff Marleve as saying "the assumption was that neighboring herring populations would repopulate overfished ones, but herring larvae spend less time as plankton and cover smaller distances than previously thought, meaning local populations can be wiped out and not recover". This has happened in many places along the coast.

Another question is if herring are the foundation of ecology how do they grow in biomass? What do they eat? Would their food source not be closer to the foundation of ecology?

Yes, the true foundation is always the plant biomass, which we are not harvesting, but herring are a part of the foundation in that they convert the plant biomass, either from eating it directly, or eating zooplankton into a protein foundation of the food web that feeds the predator species above them.

 

[wildmanyeah]

Strait of Georgia ecosystem model – D. Preikshot & I. Perry, Fisheries and Oceans Canada

 

[terrin]

The commercial Pacific herring fishery has a different history. Landings began early in the 1900s, increased slowly to around 75,000 t until the 1930s, declined due to market conditions and then rose markedly from the mid 1930s to over 200,000 t in the 1950s in response to the new market for fishmeal and fish oil. This reduction fishery was not sustainable, and the stock collapsed abruptly in 1965. Closure of the reduction fishery was followed by stock recovery and reopening of a roe fishery in 1972. Catches were highly variable, and in 1985 a comprehensive management regime was introduced. Key features include a minimum spawning biomass at which fisheries are closed, and a modest fixed harvest rate when stocks are above the limit. Quota management is by major geographic unit, although operations are regulated on much finer spatial scales. The lower biomass limit has led to regional fisheries being closed several times, in response to poor recruitment, but closures have been short and stocks have not collapsed below historic bounds of variation (Stocker 1993, Schweigert 1997, DFO 1999e-i). Although there is public concern that the herring roe fishery may be affecting other predators, including Pacific salmon, no studies have found evidence that current harvesting strategies are impacting food availability to other predators.

 

[terrin]

The commercial Pacific herring fishery has a different history. Landings began early in the 1900s, increased slowly to around 75,000 t until the 1930s, declined due to market conditions and then rose markedly from the mid 1930s to over 200,000 t in the 1950s in response to the new market for fishmeal and fish oil. This reduction fishery was not sustainable, and the stock collapsed abruptly in 1965. Closure of the reduction fishery was followed by stock recovery and reopening of a roe fishery in 1972. Catches were highly variable, and in 1985 a comprehensive management regime was introduced. Key features include a minimum spawning biomass at which fisheries are closed, and a modest fixed harvest rate when stocks are above the limit. Quota management is by major geographic unit, although operations are regulated on much finer spatial scales. The lower biomass limit has led to regional fisheries being closed several times, in response to poor recruitment, but closures have been short and stocks have not collapsed below historic bounds of variation (Stocker 1993, Schweigert 1997, DFO 1999e-i). Although there is public concern that the herring roe fishery may be affecting other predators, including Pacific salmon, no studies have found evidence that current harvesting strategies are impacting food availability to other predators.

The last sentence shows where there head is at.