Federal government declares shutdown of most Pacific herring fisheries

Key takeaways: 

• Herring an essential food source for salmon residents, which are at stake.
• Fisheries Minister Joyce Murray states that Pacific herring fisheries are being shut due to lately heightened risks to bestial salmon.

Most of the herring fisheries in The Pacific will be closed: 

Most commercial fisheries for Pacific herring on the West Coast have been shut but yielded by First Nations for food and ceremonial goals.

Fisheries Minister Joyce Murray states in a report that this “cautious” course to Pacific herring management is based on newly amplified threats to bestial salmon.

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

Murray states herring are important to the health of the ecosystem and supplies are in a delicate state, so an action must be created to “protect and regenerate this important forage species.” Source – cbc.ca

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She states the harvesting of Pacific herring will be decreased to a 10 per cent rate in the Strait of Georgia, with a full total permitted catch of 7,850 tonnes.

The statement states the judgment was taken to supply endurable fishing options and grow stock while regarding the reduction of wild salmon, and the results of the recent floods and landslides on fish habitats in B.C.

Hugh Braker, president of the First Nations Fisheries Council of British Columbia, stated the conclusion would “resound pretty well” with shore 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 stated. “The herring [=populations on the west coast of Vancouver Island has been depleted substantially from what it historically was.” Source – cbc.ca