By Ian Holmes

A boom year for the commercial roe herring fishery

Mar 8, 2017 | 3:15 PM

NANAIMO —The Strait of Georgia is bustling with commercial fishermen and seagulls preying on huge numbers of spawning herring.

The annual roe herring fishery got started on Saturday (March 4) with gillnetters taking to shallower waters, followed by seiners who got the go ahead from the DFO on Monday (March 6), according to resource manager Brenda Spence.

Spence said about 20 per cent of the forecast 175,000 tonnes of herring available between Comox and Nanaimo can be caught.

She said this year’s fishery could be a historic high.

“Very high quota levels this year and so far we’ve had a productive spawn event,” Spence said.

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Spence estimated upwards of 50 of the larger, offshore seine vessels are participating this year and 90 gillnet boats, which focus on shallower waters less than 30 metres deep.

She noted that off Comox and between Deep Bay and Nanoose Bay have been the most lucrative spots early in the fishery.

She said many onshore workers benefit from the fishery.

“Plant workers, trucking industry and the processing facilities. They provide employment when those facilities and dock folks would not be employed, quite a significant economic boost.”

Spence expects this year’s roe herring fishery in the Strait will last about three weeks.

ian.holmes@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @repoterholmes