tincan
Well-Known Member
Sucks for the herring fishermen for sure but I've gotta think given this gov't there will be financial compensation of some sort.
Given the SOG herring fishery is the last one remaining on BC's coast it's safe to say the herring fishery as a whole in BC has been managed poorly (shocker!). While many in DFO science and others agree that the SOG herring biomass is at an OK level and that 20% of that biomass is a sustainable harvest level, there is a LOT we still don't understand about SOG herring populations, including very important things like migration patters, genetic stock differences, etc. We know herring are important for salmon diets (both juvenile and adult salmon) and we also know that herring populations coastwide have declined drastically, resulting in closures in all other areas outside of the SOG. We also know (for those of us on the water a fair amount) that herring seem to have disappeared in recent decades in locations they used to be plentiful in (think of all the places you used to cast a herring jig that came back full that no longer do). Same can be said for spawning locations... they almost all spawn around hornby/denman and that didn't used to be the case.
My best understanding (and I am not a herring researcher but do chat with experts in the field) is that, like salmon, herring have more genetic diversity than we give them credit for. This diversity means there's variability in terms of migration times/locations, spawning times/locations, growth timing, etc. By treating the SOG herring a single population (ie biomass) I think we've inadvertently fished out some of the diversity that is important to the overall health of the ecosystem and I think that by scaling back this fishery it might give these depressed herring stocks time to re-build.
While not the silver bullet for why many BC salmon populations are doing poorly, I think having more herring in the SOG can only help our salmon so I'm for this harvest reduction ... and I hope the fisherman impacted are provided some sort of relief.
Given the SOG herring fishery is the last one remaining on BC's coast it's safe to say the herring fishery as a whole in BC has been managed poorly (shocker!). While many in DFO science and others agree that the SOG herring biomass is at an OK level and that 20% of that biomass is a sustainable harvest level, there is a LOT we still don't understand about SOG herring populations, including very important things like migration patters, genetic stock differences, etc. We know herring are important for salmon diets (both juvenile and adult salmon) and we also know that herring populations coastwide have declined drastically, resulting in closures in all other areas outside of the SOG. We also know (for those of us on the water a fair amount) that herring seem to have disappeared in recent decades in locations they used to be plentiful in (think of all the places you used to cast a herring jig that came back full that no longer do). Same can be said for spawning locations... they almost all spawn around hornby/denman and that didn't used to be the case.
My best understanding (and I am not a herring researcher but do chat with experts in the field) is that, like salmon, herring have more genetic diversity than we give them credit for. This diversity means there's variability in terms of migration times/locations, spawning times/locations, growth timing, etc. By treating the SOG herring a single population (ie biomass) I think we've inadvertently fished out some of the diversity that is important to the overall health of the ecosystem and I think that by scaling back this fishery it might give these depressed herring stocks time to re-build.
While not the silver bullet for why many BC salmon populations are doing poorly, I think having more herring in the SOG can only help our salmon so I'm for this harvest reduction ... and I hope the fisherman impacted are provided some sort of relief.
Last edited: