Four-Year Coast-Wide Moratorium
on Commercial Roe and Bait Herring Fisheries needed to rebuild herring stocks, the biomass "backbone" of our Pacific Ocean ecosystem.
More herring and herring roe food for Coho and Chinook salmon, Pacific halibut, Pacific cod, Humpback and Grey whales, Harlequin ducks and other seabirds, will enable them to thrive!
PACIFIC HERRING - Clupea pallasi
HERRING - A KEYSTONE SPECIES IN THE COASTAL MARINE FOOD WEB
Pacific herring are central in B.C. 's marine food web. They are a key "prey" fish, constituting 30 to 70 percent of the summer diets of Chinook salmon, Pacific cod, lingcod, and harbour seals in southern B.C. waters. Herring eggs (roe) are an important part of the diets of migrating seabirds and gray whales. Many invertebrate species such as crabs and starfish also thrive on the roe.
Researchers are amassing conclusive evidence that many species of birds, such as the threatened Harlequin ducks, need large volumes of the highly nutritious herring roe to ensure reproductive success when they migrate into the cold interior to nest in the spring.
CANADA MUST ADOPT AND IMPLEMENT A "FORAGE FISH" POLICY
In Washington State a "forage fish" policy has recently been legislated. It ensures that a portion of the herring stock is first and foremost "allocated to nature", recognizing herring as an important source of food for other fish species, birds and marine animals. After wildlife that depends on herring gets the share it needs, commercial and recreational fisheries get their allocations.
A "forage fish" policy is not in place in Canada at this time, although many Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) studies have documented the "loss" of herring roe to birds and predators.
Five B.C. Herring Fisheries
Currently there are five herring fisheries in B.C.: the roe, winter food and bait, "live" sports bait, roe on kelp and the aboriginal herring fisheries.
1) The Roe Herring Fishery
The roe herring fishery is currently the most controversial. It is a massive corporate fishery that occurs on the spawning grounds in March. Only the roe (herring eggs) are sold to the Japanese. The herring fillets are reduced to animal feed. On average only 10 percent of the fish biomass caught is used for human consumption.
Herring roe, called Kazunoko,is a traditional Japanese delicacy and sells for $120 to $150 per kilogram in Japan. George Weston Ltd (B.C. Packers) and Jimmy Pattison (the Canadian Fishing Company) reap large profits from this fishery. However, in recent years, the income of the fishers who work aboard the large corporate-owned seiners or lease gillnet licenses with loans from the corporations, has dropped to very low levels as the fishers becomes increasingly financially dependent on the corporations and have no option but to sell their fish to them at whatever low price they get.
Some scientists now believe that the roe fishery's "serial overfishing" (the fleet fishing to depletion the herring in each bay or inlet one after another-see Glossary page 3) has over time decimated most of the resident and migratory herring stocks on the B.C. coast. Although Native people, sportfishers, and local residents throughout the coast continue to complain bitterly to Fisheries Minister David Anderson about the obvious and tragic effects of overfishing herring, high quotas are still set every year, particularly in the Gwaii Haana Park in Haida Gwaii, in Barkley Sound on the West Coast of Vancouver Island and the Strait of Georgia.
Gillnetters fishing for herring in Georgia Strait.Photo credit: taken in 1988 by Bob Cain
In all but one area of the Georgia Strait, herring stocks have been driven to very low levels by the roe fishery. However, remnant populations of herring remain and they could be rebuilt to their former greatness if herring fisheries were closed for four or more years.
2) The Winter Food And Bait Fishery
The winter food and bait fishery targets adult herring feeding in Georgia Strait. It markets the fish for human and aquarium food, for frozen sales to the public.
This fishery is controversial because scientists admit that they do not know if the fish caught represent genetically distinct "resident" spawning stocks or are a non-migrating component of the major migratory herring stocks. Thus this fishery is not being managed sustainably under the "precautionary principle" now dictated by two recent international agreements for fisheries (Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks Agreement, and the Food and Agriculture Organization's Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries.
3) The "Live" Sports Bait Fishery
The "live" sports bait fishery, which occurs mostly in summer months in the Strait of Georgia, targets mostly small, immature herring for use as live baits for salmon fishing. This fishery has recently been criticized by environmentalists, whose concerns are verified by DFO reports that note that the fishery targets declining "resident" herring. DFO also admits that this fishery is poorly regulated. The fishermen often make sales directly to the public with no mandatory observation of "landings" (record of volume of fish taken to dock) as is the case in most other commercial B.C. fisheries. This fishery, even at a reduced level, does great damage to endangered "resident" herring stocks and to the hundreds of fish, bird, and mammal species that need "resident" herring in the winter months when the migratory herring stocks are absent from Georgia Strait. Coho and chinook salmon and ling cod have also been decimated by the effects of this fishery.
4) The Roe-On-Kelp Fishery
The small-scale roe-on-kelp fishery induces adult fish to have their eggs or spawn on kelp hung on strings. Some of the herring are impounded, and the roe-on-kelp from the seaweed hung both in the impoundments and on nearby floats is harvested after the fish are released. Most of it is sent to Japan where it is a special delicacy and commands a high price. This is a community-based fishery employing many Native people.
5) The Aboriginal Herring Fishery
The aboriginal herring fishery harvests wild seaweeds with herring spawn attached or "herring-spawned-on-branches"-hemlock or cedar boughs placed on the herring spawning grounds. The herring eggs are dried, frozen or salted for later use as traditional food.
However, due to the decimation of most B.C. herring stocks by the roe herring fishery, few Native bands can today harvest the herring eggs they need. This has led to law suits and even confrontations on the fishing grounds as Native people seek to protect a declining resource of particularly high cultural value to them.
