The DFO has released their Draft Integrated Fisheries Management Plan for Pacific Herring for the 2025/2026 season. Here is a Dropbox link to access the PDF document: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/b5ykahli33lfc0cr59tf6/ALtz7H5ALZiGYgNz–rQD7g?rlkey=kykfm3ru9pxfwk0t90udg0rl2&e=1&st=qmfjidif&dl=0

ACTION ON NOVEMBER 17

HCRS and David Suzuki are going to be gathering outside the Department of Fisheries office at 11:00 AM at 200 Burrard Street, Vancouver on Monday, November 17th to hand deliver our response to the draft herring fishery management plan. There will be a Zoom call on November 15th to plan. Please call or text Jim at (250) 937-9475 if you want to be a part of the planning process or join us. The more the merrier! 

DFO’s 2026 Draft Integrated Fisheries Management Plan (IFMP) for Pacific Herring is now out and the public need to get their recommendations to them by November 17th. 

The Cole’s notes are that DFO is recommending a harvest of up to 14,385 tons in the Strait of Georgia which is 14% of their estimated biomass of 102,791 tons.

Excerpt from the IFMP:

SOG: Assessment information for the Strait of Georgia is presented using the updated SISCAH modelling framework. Spawning biomass for 2026 is forecast to be 102,791 short tons and above the LRP and USR reference points. Based on a management procedure tuned to meet the conversative objective of maintaining the stock above the LRP with a high degree (>75%) degree of certainty, harvest rates of up to 14% will achieve this objective over the 15 year simulation period. Harvest options for consideration for the SOG area include TAC’s up to 14,385 tons to support harvest for FSC and commercial fisheries for Special Use, Food and Bait and roe herring. 

Our recommendation is, as ever, to “pause the fishery until stocks recover in the Strait of Georgia.” If you want to provide input, write an email DIRECTLY to Hong.Tjhie@dfo-mpo.gc.ca

Even if you only have five minutes, you can still get involved. Pacific Wild has prepared an easy way to provide input to DFO. Read their Draft Herring Management Plan Analysis for a summarized version of the IFMP, and respond online using their Herring Feedback Tool, which provides a pre-written letter to DFO.

Our president, Jim Shortreed, has provided his additional analysis:

“The entire stock of the Strait of Georgia will be used to calculate 14% even though 11,000 tonnes of spawners spawned south of Dodd Narrows and that area will remain closed. So they are using faulty arithmetic— calculating 14% of the estimated 100,000 thousand tonnes, but concentrating the fishing on 80 thousand tonnes. That gives a harvest rate of 16%. Not sustainable by even DFO standards. Three large regions of BC are still labelled by DFO as low biomass low productivity. Seiners can fish as much Food and Bait as they wish within the total annual catch. The Food and Bait is the most harmful to genetic diversity. West Coast of Vancouver Island after having two good years has had a lesser spawn last spring.”