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Alexis, what
is the word on the street as to the return of the herring spawn this year,
and what is the future outlook. Is it a reduced herring fishery, improved natural water conditions, or just an unknown fluke of nature, Have heard of increased herring in other areas as well which is encouraging. I did read something once about the hake and herring populations tend to be cyclical (1 up & 1 down and vice versa) but know little about it.
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"Herring can live for at least 15 years" |
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Once again commercial fishing is the evil that plagues our coastline. The commercial fisherman does not fit into the future of BC. Pressure the BC govt just like they are doing with the Grizzly bear. The govt. listens to votes.
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Herring are extremely susceptable to warm water, even more so than salmon. For a successful spawn, the conditions must be optimum. The conditions on this coast are returning to near normal temperatures, so spawns appear to be occuring in areas where they have been absent for quite some time. Herring, unlike other species of fish also have no set spawning grounds. Meaning, they do not necessarily spawn in the same areas all the time. There are other considerations, as well. The kelp beds and eel grass must be in good shape, as this is where spawn takes place. Here, the sea urchin populations had risen to huge numbers, because of the absence of their natural predators, sea otters. That impacted heavily on our kelp beds, along with warming water, which is less nutrient rich, causing them to shrink and in some cases disappear altogether. Over the last two years the water temperatures have returned to near normal, this has prompted returns of spawning to their more traditional areas, such as Campbell River, Parksville/Qualicum etc. Of course the commercial fleet has had an impact, even though it is considered one of the best managed fisheries in the world. They are removing part of THE major source of protein from the marine food chain. Everything that is considered a marine predator on this coast includes a fairly substancial amount of herring in their diets, seals, sea lions, whales, salmon, dogfish, birds, and more. Hopefully, we are seeing a return to more normal spawning conditions, and if DFO can be convinced to decrease the tonnage allowance for the herring roe fishery for the forseeable future, we might just be able to go back to the good old days.
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Thanks for that Alexis, would be curious to know how other regions are faring as to the Herring. If water temp. is such a big factor we should see improved spawning in other areas as well. I have heard reports of a lot more herring around the lower mainland this past year. Interesting about the sea urchins. Saw some footage once outside of New York Harbour, where the little beasties just cover the sea floor, apprently thriving on the effluent in the area, at the expense of everything else. Hear they are tasty though. It really does make me wonder sometimes how much of all this "global warming" and El Nino and Le Nina isn't just normal cyclical variations that have been going on for centuries, that we ultimately have no control over. That said, I think we really have to re-think the size of the herring fishery.
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Crabs you old SOB. You finally hit the nail on the head. We really have very little control over the natural environment in which the fish lives. We do however have a lot of control over how many we chose to remove from the natural environment. I see all those fish returning to the rivers as my after tax dollars. Nature has taxed and cut out the weak and those after tax dollars are swimming home towards the bank. Now some goddamn thief commercial fisherman is holding me up for my money before I can put it in the bank. We need to end non selective harvests and push towards in river selective fisheries. The same thing goes for those bastards robbing the strong herring as they move towards spawning. Villans all of them.
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