Herring stocks rebounding

[Capt_Ed]

Pacific herring stocks 'increasingly' rebounding on West Vancouver Island: Biologists

A rite of Spring is beginning off Vancouver Island and fishermen are now eagerly preparing for their first catch of the season. Pacific herring spawned early off Cape Scott and Nootka Sound this year and biologists are buoyed by the numbers of fish returning there.

www.cheknews.ca

 

[Hardy Guy]

Seems to be an uptick for sure. Imagine that......... stocks cycle up and down.. seriously it is good to hear.

 

[Whole in the Water]

Good news!

Sure wish we could get such rebounds in the Salish Sea - but that would mean that DFO would have to stop the overfishing of the herring stocks in this area!

 

[Capt_Ed]

Good news!

Sure wish we could get such rebounds in the Salish Sea - but that would mean that DFO would have to stop the overfishing of the herring stocks in this area!

the stock in the Gulf of Georgia are doing just fine. early spawn there also this year

 

[SpringVelocity]

Seems to be an uptick for sure. Imagine that......... stocks cycle up and down.. seriously if is good to hear.

Imagine that stocks cycling up and down. Who knew?

 

[Hoops]

It might seem obvious, but at least this begins to show a correlation between closing herring fishing and having stocks increasing.

It could be worse; if the stocks were still decreasing despite the closures then we would have a more confusing issue at hand.

Whether this is all cyclic and they would’ve increased, even with harvesting, is impossible to say now because we didn’t take that path.

From my perspective, I would like to see the closures continue and notice whether the stocks improve year after year.

 

[Hardy Guy]

Would you like to see that approach with rec salmon?

 

[Hoops]

I could be flexible enough to stand with it, yes.

 

[Gong Show]

Prohibitions are a lazy response when there is insufficient data to support a prohibition.

 

[terrin]

Would you like to see that approach with rec salmon?

Already happened South Georgia Straight. Can't keep a Chinook until Sept 1 when most have gone up the river. Now we are just waiting for stocks to improve so restriction can be removed.

 

[Hardy Guy]

Do you agree with that approach? I assume not. That was what I was getting at. If you agree with those restrictions then all is good.

 

[wildmanyeah]

Now we are just waiting for stocks to improve so restriction can be removed.

restrictions have nothing to with stock abundance, more fish does not mean reduced restrictions.

 

[wildmanyeah]

the stock in the Gulf of Georgia are doing just fine. early spawn there also this year

its not true unless you can go where you went 40 years ago with a herring rack and load up. Don't try to tell em otherwise

 

[trophywife]

Already happened South Georgia Straight. Can't keep a Chinook until Sept 1 when most have gone up the river. Now we are just waiting for stocks to improve so restriction can be removed.

the stocks wont improve with the closure. the upriver political gain is more important. my apologies for the derail.

 

[High Time]

the stocks wont improve with the closure. the upriver political gain is more important.

Already happened South Georgia Straight. Can't keep a Chinook until Sept 1 when most have gone up the river. Now we are just waiting for stocks to improve so restriction can be removed.

We can wait until Hell freezes over and those stocks are not going to improve while a special group gets to hammer them in July and August in river.

 

[terrin]

We can wait until Hell freezes over and those stocks are not going to improve while a special group gets to hammer them in July and August in river.

But I thought I read the stocks were up significantly this last year.

 

[searun]

It might seem obvious, but at least this begins to show a correlation between closing herring fishing and having stocks increasing.

It could be worse; if the stocks were still decreasing despite the closures then we would have a more confusing issue at hand.

Whether this is all cyclic and they would’ve increased, even with harvesting, is impossible to say now because we didn’t take that path.

From my perspective, I would like to see the closures continue and notice whether the stocks improve year after year.

Can't say I agree with this approach. Natural mortality and other factors influence abundance shifts just as much, if not more, than fishing. The ER on SoG herring was 20% in the earlier MSE modelling (recently reduced to 10%) and while that is a reasonably significant removal quite frankly its not likely to effect recovery. Sustainable fisheries when well managed are what we should be aiming to accomplish. Insofar as I can tell, the herring fishery has been sustainably managed. If part of good management objectives is perhaps to set a threshold where say the recovery is sustained for 1-3 seasons as a precaution prior to resumption of ordinary fishing plans, that sort of guard rail could be reasonable.

The recreational salmon fishery should be managed in the same way - remove the politics. If we could focus on establishing sustainable harvest parameters and manage the fishery using a predictable approach that everyone would understand that would be euphoria.

 

[Hoops]

@searun, I agree with what you’re saying about creating a sustainable fishery.

Perhaps what I said about continuing closures was taken as a polarizing view. I don’t mean it to be as I too hold a longterm view on sustainable fisheries.

To add further clarity what I would like is for the fishery to be closed for a few more years for the health of the environment. Economic factors are difficult for those involved directly.

I strongly believe that ecosystems are built from the bottom up. It starts with creating clean ocean water, so that we have healthy vegetation, upwards to zooplankton/krill, to herring, salmon, etc…

What I’m saying in this is: personally I would like to see a greater sustainable biomass from the bottom upwards. If we could create more certainty through a pause in harvesting then we might not have to say statements “not likely to effect recovery”. It’s not a personal thing to pick apart that statement, as I too have similar thoughts, and would like more predictability about when and how much to harvest.

Pausing for longer is what I see to gain the fastest path to clarity.

 

[wildmanyeah]

@searun, I agree with what you’re saying about creating a sustainable fishery.

Perhaps what I said about continuing closures was taken as a polarizing view. I don’t mean it to be as I too hold a longterm view on sustainable fisheries.

To add further clarity what I would like is for the fishery to be closed for a few more years for the health of the environment. Economic factors are difficult for those involved directly.

I strongly believe that ecosystems are built from the bottom up. It starts with creating clean ocean water, so that we have healthy vegetation, upwards to zooplankton/krill, to herring, salmon, etc…

What I’m saying in this is: personally I would like to see a greater sustainable biomass from the bottom upwards. If we could create more certainty through a pause in harvesting then we might not have to say statements “not likely to effect recovery”. It’s not a personal thing to pick apart that statement, as I too have similar thoughts, and would like more predictability about when and how much to harvest.

Pausing for longer is what I see to gain the fastest path to clarity.

There is commercial krill and zooplankton fisheries, but no one ever brings them up as they don't seem to be on the ENGO list. Herring seem to get all this flashy attention but are pretty much closed everywhere

 

[wildmanyeah]

I understand the logic of not harvesting herring and having them as an ecological bank, an insurance policy

I just don’t think i can point the figure to close it down and not expect the same fingers to point back to close down the fisheries I take part in. Especially when herring is closed pretty much all but in the SOG and that fishery has been cut from a sustainable 20%, to 10%. I believe even the eco sustainability level is something like 14-18%

It’s not like the same logic can’t be applied to salmon and SRKW, seals. Bears, ect