Fisheries Minister says he will not champion herring conservation fisheries closures like he has for coho salmon...UNLESS THERE IS A LOUD PUBLIC OUTCRY
Federal Fisheries Minister David Anderson met for over 2 hours in November 1998 with concerned conservationists and environment groups, including the Wilderness Committee, Islands Trust, and representatives of communities near where the herring roe fishery took place in 1998.
At the meeting DFO's "industrial-biased" biologists tried to down play the herring crisis, asserting that the herring fisheries were taking only 20 percent of the available biomass, leaving plenty for spawning.
Minister Anderson appeared to be sympathetic to the conservationists' pleas, being a sports fisher who understands the basic biological laws that govern fisheries. But he refused to commit to taking strong measures-like total fisheries closure-to enable the herring stocks to rebuild. He told the conservationists that it was hard enough to hold the line on coho conservation and he could not fight two battles at once.
Without a huge outcry from the public calling for such extreme but ecologically necessary measures, it looks like Anderson is going to rubber stamp the plans of the DFO managers who are staunch advocates of the current corporate fisheries.
