Federal government announces closure of most Pacific herring fisheries

Most commercial fisheries for Pacific herring on the West Coast have been closed with the exception of harvests by First Nations for food and ceremonial purposes.

Fisheries Minister Joyce Murray says in a statement that this "cautious" approach to Pacific herring management is based on recently intensified risks to wild salmon.

Pacific herring are an important food source for salmon, sea birds, marine mammals and other fish.

Murray says herring are vital to the health of the ecosystem and stocks are in a fragile state, so an effort must be made to "protect and regenerate this important forage species."

She says the harvesting of Pacific herring will be reduced to a 10 per cent rate in the Strait of Georgia, with a maximum total allowable catch of 7,850 tonnes.

The statement says the decision was taken with the aim of providing sustainable fishing opportunities and increasing stock, while considering the decline of wild salmon, and the impacts of the recent floods and landslides on fish habitats in B.C.

Hugh Braker, president of the First Nations Fisheries Council of British Columbia, said the decision would "resound pretty well" with coastal First Nations in B.C.

"On the west coast of Vancouver Island, the First Nations have been calling for a moratorium on herring fishery for many years," he said. "The herring [populations] on the west coast of Vancouver Island have been depleted substantially from what it historically was."

"Some commercial fishermen are going to get hurt by this because, of course, they depend on herring for part of their income of the year. However, conservation has to come first." 

Braker, who is from the Tseshaht First Nation on the Island, says the Pacific herring are "very" important to Indigenous people living along B.C.'s coast.

The fish are harvested by First Nations every year — not only as a source of food, but for the roe (fish eggs), which serve as a source of nutrition.

"There was great overfishing in the past, and we did not take proper care of the habitat," Braker said. "You're not going to save herring by simply stopping fishing. You have to look at the whole habitat, at the whole stress that the ocean is under."

The council is set to meet with Murray soon to discuss how best to protect the entire Pacific marine ecosystem, according to Braker.