One fundamental thing to keep in mind that my father in law has said to me (he has been an active streamkeeper for over 15 years) is simply this; not much herring (and other bait fish), then not much predator fish (i.e. salmon, etc.).
He has been finding this out first hand with the half dozen creeks he has helped restore in the Campbell River area. While there are many variables that can impact salmon return rates, he is becoming more convinced that one of the biggest factors is the declining amount of feed for young salmon coming out of the creeks and rivers.
Years ago the coast used to be lined with huge herring spawns that created tons of biomass for young salmon to eat and nature timed the emerging smolts and the herring spawns to happen at the same time. Now these huge spawning events are greatly reduced due to gross mismanagement on the part of DFO and allowed overfishing of herring for quick and easy profits.
When I was a kid growing up in CR, you never bought frozen bait to go fishing, you went out and raked up some fresh that day as you could always find herring school milling around. Try that in CR today!
Years ago you seldom had to fight with seals over catching your salmon on the line as they were usually too busy feeeding on abundant and easier to catch herring.
Once again, DFO has put economic demands and corporate greed ahead of sound conservation.
Unless we get the DFO to better manage herring and other bait fish stocks (including krill) I think we may not be making the best use of our time, $ and effort in many salmon conservation activities. What I mean by this is that it can be a waste of our good efforts if many of the salmon we are trying to promote and conserve just end up starving when they reach the ocean!
IMHO the bottom line is this, low numbers of much bait fish (especially herring) = low number of salmon.
I know this sounds obvious, but
my whole point is that we need to make the better management of herring a higher priority issue to truly bring about more abundant fish for all resource use sectors!
I think more effort by those that care about our salmon stocks needs to be focussed on conserving our vital herring stocks - they must go hand in hand as they are dependant on each other.
So do I support a moratorium on herring fishing - you bet I do!
My hope is that more and more will feel the same way and turn this serious situation around!