News
“Herring Roe Fishery, Strait of Georgia, 2020” by Bob Turner
March 05, 2021Hello everybody
I have just posted a new short movie on my YouTube channel – “Herring Roe Fishery, Strait of Georgia, 2020”. Last March I kayaked among the boats of the herring roe gillnet fishery along the shores of Denman Island off the east coast of Vancouver Island near Courtenay-Comox. It was an eye-opener for me.
This herring roe fishery is highly controversial, in part because of the wastefulness of killing herring to gain the small quantity of contained eggs; the remaining 90% of the fish is ground to fishmeal. Herring are an ecological foundation of the Salish Sea ecosystem, depended on by humpbacks, dolphins, sea lions, seals, salmon and other fish, and healthy herring stocks are vital to the well-being of other commercial fisheries, the salmon sport fishery, and the whale-watching industry. Currently 4 or 5 herring fisheries on the BC coast are closed due to overfishing; this Strait of Georgia fishery is the only fishery remaining. Scientists are concerned that this fishery gambles unnecessarily with the remaining stocks of this vital fish.
Please share this movie with anyone you think might be interested.
Thanks
Bob Turner
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“Hope is not optimism, which expects things to turn out well, but something rooted in the conviction
that there is good worth working for.” Seamus Heaney