GLOSSARY OF TERMS RELATED TO HERRING
Major spawning areas of Pacific herring stocks in British Columbia
Importance of adult Pacific herring in predators' diets - West Coast Vancouver Island
Based on charts and graphs in Environment Canada and Fisheries and Oceans Canada's State of the Environment (SOE) Bullentin No. 98-2 - Winter 1998
ROE HERRING FISHERY: A controversial fishery for the Japanese market, in which only the roe (fish eggs) from the females (about 10% of the herring biomass harvested) is used for human consumption. It is by far the largest fishery in B.C. today. This fishery now takes about 28,000 tonnes per year form the spawning grounds, enough to fill a football field to the height of over 24 feet. The total landed value of the roe herring catch reached a high in 1979 of about $150 million, but has declined since then.
WINTER FOOD AND BAIT FISHERY: A small but ecologically dangerous fishery for human and aquarium fish food and frozen salmon bait that takes place in Georgia Strait. This controversial fishery targets the declining "resident" herring stocks of Georgia Strait, so important to the birds, mammals and fishes such as coho, chinook salmon and lingcod that are attempting to rear in the Strait during the entire year.
"LIVE" SPORTS AND BAIT FISHERY: A small but ecologically dangerous fishery for live salmon bait takes place in Georgia Strait. This fishery, which also targets the declining "resident" herring stocks, has been and continues to be poorly regulated by the DFO.
ROE-ON-KELP: A fishery in which the adult herring are not intentionally killed, but the fish are encouraged to spawn on kelp which is then harvested, dried or salted and shipped to Japan where it sells as a delicacy for a very high price. A community-based fishery with a high involvement by Native people.
THE HISTORIC "REDUCTION" FISHERY: The era (1940-68) during which destructive overfishing of herring occurred. Night lights (pit lamps) were used to take massive volumes of herring. During this period, herring were caught and processed or "reduced" into fish meal and oil. This fishery took very large quantities of herring, up to a high of 250,000 tonnes in one year, extracting much of the biomass needed to sustain the stocks. By 1965, most of the older spawning herring had been removed by overfishing. This commercial fishery could not be sustained, collapsed completely and was closed in 1968. "Temperate change" was given as one of the reasons for the collapse. Earlier pleas by concerned scientists and fishers were ignored.
"SERIAL OVERFISHING": The gradual "domino" elimination of regional herring stocks by allowing massive seine and gillnet fisheries to deplete the herring stocks in a single bay or inlet and then allowing the fleet to move on to another bay or inlet the following year and deplete stocks there.
GILLNET FISHERY: In this method the fish are caught in shallow water close to the spawning grounds in nets that snag the fish's gills. This fishery can select for larger herring by adjusting the size of the net meshes. Roughly one-half of the B.C. roe herring catch is taken by this method. Traditionally a small operator fishery, it now is corporate-controlled due to gillnet fishers borrowing from the corporation to pay for license lease costs.
SEINE FISHERY: In this method the fish are caught or "pursued" in nets that can take up to 1000 tons at once. Roughly one-half of the B.C. roe herring catch is taken by this method. This fishery is not selective and often takes many small herring. This fishery utilizes large efficient vessels that are owned by, or controlled through vessels mortgages held by, a few large corporations.
FORAGE FISH POLICY: A policy plan recently legislated in Washington State that mandates the management of herring stocks as "forage fish" to ensure the provision of herring as food for other fish species, birds and marine mammals. Both commercial and recreational fisheries can still exist for herring, however only after enough fish are first reserved for forage.
RESIDENT HERRING STOCKS: Herring stocks that spawn quite close to the areas in which they live in the summer months. These stocks do not migrate to offshore waters to feed. In the Strait of Georgia and other areas, these stocks are critical for many populations of birds, mammals and fishes such as coho, chinook salmon, and lingcod.
MIGRATORY HERRING STOCKS: Herring stocks that do not spawn close to the areas in which the live. Migratory herring move to offshore waters to feed except during the winter and spring migration to inshore waters to spawn.
