The annual herring roe fishery sees roughly 100 million of the small fish eligible to be caught in the waters between the Comox Valley and Nanaimo. (Department of Fisheries and Oceans)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

fishing

Herring roe fishery quotas remain unchanged for 2021

Feb 21, 2021 | 7:14 AM

NANAIMO — Fishing vessels can expect to catch the same amount of herring roe in 2021 as in years before.

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans confirmed on Friday, Feb. 19 the allowable catch rate is set at 20 per cent. This equals 16,330 tonnes of herring biomass in the Strait of Georgia.

Neil Davis, director of resource management with the department, said the unchanged quota will meet conservation efforts in the area.

“We’re also very cognizant that herring play a very important role in the ecosystem and are a food source for a number of other species, whether that be other fish like Pacific salmon or marine mammals,” Davis said during Friday’s news conference.

Despite the DFO’s consistent insistence over the years the quota is sustainable, conservationists and advocate have long called for a reduction or moratorium on the annual fishery.

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They say the collapse of the herring population would have a dramatic impact on the entire ecosystem.

The Strait of Georgia fishery is the largest on the west coast by roughly 15,000 tonnes of acceptable catch.

The commercial fisheries on the west coast of Vancouver Island and Haida Gwaii are closed to rebuild stocks.

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