Andrew P
Well-Known Member
Hey Folks,
So, I have something that I am pretty darn excited to announce, and once the fine details are confirmed, there will be another, more official announcement made.
Here is a brief breakdown of the project and it's goals.
Background: Myself and a bunch of fish loving friends got together and formed the Salish Sea Herring Enhancement Society. The name sounds much bigger than what 'it' is at the moment....but we have to start somewhere. For the last couple of years we have done bits and pieces around the CRD to monitor the herring spawn and try to enhance it in a few ways(hanging herring curtains on docks, etc). It became apparent pretty quickly that the herring stocks have been reduced to a point where they are quite unpredictable and there are some large gaps in the information available about herring in Southern BC, and most notably, specific information around smaller populations, such as The Gorge, Saltspring, Saanich Inlet, Howe Sound, etc. I have had lengthy conversations with the DFO Herring Manager for the area and he agrees that this is a large gap in the information and a piece that would certainly help in managing the stocks. It is unclear whether these populations are genetically distinct from other populations that spawn throughout the Salish Sea....and if proven so, would have huge benefits in both managing harvesting of the stocks along with stock rebuilding plans.
So you can probably get where I am going with this....and you are probably saying that this is DFO’s job and why are they not doing it alone? Well, there just isn’t the funding or it is not seen as a priority. This will be a side effect of the project; send a strong message to the top that Canadians care about herring as they are essential for a healthy coastal ecosystem in BC.
Project Goals:
Long Term Goal:
To expand upon DFO's study that evaluated herring DNA on the BC Coast. This was a great study, but one that points out that there are many gaps, which if filled, would greatly help in the management of the stocks across the coast.
This information will be used to lobby DFO to protect and begin to rebuild these stocks and to lobby the Federal Government to give DFO adequate resources to properly manage the stock.
The whole exercise will also be used to raise public awareness of herring as a valuable resource that needs to be protected not only for humans, but for the long list of ocean creatures that depend in them for food.
A message will ring out: Science is important and if government will not fund it, citizens will step in. This will not be an combative message but rather one to bring about change and hopefully have DFO match the public.
The DFO DNA study outlined some gaps that we would like to start to address:
1) Small isolated stocks were probably under-represented. They need to be looked at further to identify whether they are genetically distinct stocks. The Gorge
only got caught because Yogi sent him the samples. Saanich Inlet,
Saltspring Island, Porlier Pass, and Squamish might also be distinct
stocks or be spill-over from larger Georgia Strait/Salish Sea stocks. This question needs to be answered if any meaningful management or enhancement is to be achieved.
2) Identification of what the juveniles are doing. This may be a
bottleneck for survival. Where are they going? If it is found that a distinct stock is mixing with the general population out in the open ocean at a certain time, then management practices could be put in place to reduce the over fishing of the stock. This is pointed out in the DFO study.
Phase 1:
The initial goal of the study is to have DNA analysis done on 300 herring sample from 6 distinct sites of interest.
Cost: Roughly $5000
Source Of Funding: Online Crowdfunding Campaign.
Who is Organizing this study:
I am not a scientist and do have a job already….so I have reached out into the fish loving community and have teamed up with Yogi and the good folks at the World Fisheries Trust. They are doing the paper work and also applying for any grants that may be available. I will be pulling my company(sitka.ca) in to help with the fundraising and we have open arms to anyone else who want to make this a big success.
Who is doing the testing:
The folks lined up to do the analysis for us are the DFO lab that has done past analysis of herring. We would just be pushing them to do
some work they are not scheduled to do, presumably subsidised by DFO infrastructure and staff, but with supplementary money. We could
maybe argue that we should not have to pay for analysis at a government lab, but the collaboration could also make any necessary
follow-up more likely. It would be done through an official research collaboration agreement, similar to what they do with a variety of
universities, so it isn't a cash-only secret transaction. $5000 would get us about 300 fish analysed. If we think of 50 fish per analytical
site, this gives us 6 sites or situations. Terry Beacham, of this lab, was the lead researcher on the most recent and complete evaluation of herring DNA on the coast.
What Next?!
We will be finalizing the initial plan and agreement with the lab shortly and will then be launching the crowdfunding campaign.
I am very much an optimist at heart and think that we are going to destroy the $5000 goal. What happens if the initial goal is surpassed? The study simply continues to expand in scope(more sites analyzed). My wild dreams have the entire BC herring population mapped out. A rough estimate of that scope is about $500,000.
If anyone would like to get involved(besides making a donation) please send me a PM. I will of course put up a more official post once the fine details are worked out.
Thanks Guys and Gals!!
The study that I speak of can be downloaded here:
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1577/T08-033.1?journalCode=utaf20#.Uug_FfbTliU
Andrew
So, I have something that I am pretty darn excited to announce, and once the fine details are confirmed, there will be another, more official announcement made.
Here is a brief breakdown of the project and it's goals.
Background: Myself and a bunch of fish loving friends got together and formed the Salish Sea Herring Enhancement Society. The name sounds much bigger than what 'it' is at the moment....but we have to start somewhere. For the last couple of years we have done bits and pieces around the CRD to monitor the herring spawn and try to enhance it in a few ways(hanging herring curtains on docks, etc). It became apparent pretty quickly that the herring stocks have been reduced to a point where they are quite unpredictable and there are some large gaps in the information available about herring in Southern BC, and most notably, specific information around smaller populations, such as The Gorge, Saltspring, Saanich Inlet, Howe Sound, etc. I have had lengthy conversations with the DFO Herring Manager for the area and he agrees that this is a large gap in the information and a piece that would certainly help in managing the stocks. It is unclear whether these populations are genetically distinct from other populations that spawn throughout the Salish Sea....and if proven so, would have huge benefits in both managing harvesting of the stocks along with stock rebuilding plans.
So you can probably get where I am going with this....and you are probably saying that this is DFO’s job and why are they not doing it alone? Well, there just isn’t the funding or it is not seen as a priority. This will be a side effect of the project; send a strong message to the top that Canadians care about herring as they are essential for a healthy coastal ecosystem in BC.
Project Goals:
Long Term Goal:
To expand upon DFO's study that evaluated herring DNA on the BC Coast. This was a great study, but one that points out that there are many gaps, which if filled, would greatly help in the management of the stocks across the coast.
This information will be used to lobby DFO to protect and begin to rebuild these stocks and to lobby the Federal Government to give DFO adequate resources to properly manage the stock.
The whole exercise will also be used to raise public awareness of herring as a valuable resource that needs to be protected not only for humans, but for the long list of ocean creatures that depend in them for food.
A message will ring out: Science is important and if government will not fund it, citizens will step in. This will not be an combative message but rather one to bring about change and hopefully have DFO match the public.
The DFO DNA study outlined some gaps that we would like to start to address:
1) Small isolated stocks were probably under-represented. They need to be looked at further to identify whether they are genetically distinct stocks. The Gorge
only got caught because Yogi sent him the samples. Saanich Inlet,
Saltspring Island, Porlier Pass, and Squamish might also be distinct
stocks or be spill-over from larger Georgia Strait/Salish Sea stocks. This question needs to be answered if any meaningful management or enhancement is to be achieved.
2) Identification of what the juveniles are doing. This may be a
bottleneck for survival. Where are they going? If it is found that a distinct stock is mixing with the general population out in the open ocean at a certain time, then management practices could be put in place to reduce the over fishing of the stock. This is pointed out in the DFO study.
Phase 1:
The initial goal of the study is to have DNA analysis done on 300 herring sample from 6 distinct sites of interest.
Cost: Roughly $5000
Source Of Funding: Online Crowdfunding Campaign.
Who is Organizing this study:
I am not a scientist and do have a job already….so I have reached out into the fish loving community and have teamed up with Yogi and the good folks at the World Fisheries Trust. They are doing the paper work and also applying for any grants that may be available. I will be pulling my company(sitka.ca) in to help with the fundraising and we have open arms to anyone else who want to make this a big success.
Who is doing the testing:
The folks lined up to do the analysis for us are the DFO lab that has done past analysis of herring. We would just be pushing them to do
some work they are not scheduled to do, presumably subsidised by DFO infrastructure and staff, but with supplementary money. We could
maybe argue that we should not have to pay for analysis at a government lab, but the collaboration could also make any necessary
follow-up more likely. It would be done through an official research collaboration agreement, similar to what they do with a variety of
universities, so it isn't a cash-only secret transaction. $5000 would get us about 300 fish analysed. If we think of 50 fish per analytical
site, this gives us 6 sites or situations. Terry Beacham, of this lab, was the lead researcher on the most recent and complete evaluation of herring DNA on the coast.
What Next?!
We will be finalizing the initial plan and agreement with the lab shortly and will then be launching the crowdfunding campaign.
I am very much an optimist at heart and think that we are going to destroy the $5000 goal. What happens if the initial goal is surpassed? The study simply continues to expand in scope(more sites analyzed). My wild dreams have the entire BC herring population mapped out. A rough estimate of that scope is about $500,000.
If anyone would like to get involved(besides making a donation) please send me a PM. I will of course put up a more official post once the fine details are worked out.
Thanks Guys and Gals!!
The study that I speak of can be downloaded here:
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1577/T08-033.1?journalCode=utaf20#.Uug_FfbTliU
Andrew
