Dear Herring School,

It has been a very busy six months for the HCRS (Herring Conservation & Restoration Society) volunteer board and the W̱SÁNEĆ Hereditary Chiefs (WHC) in support of their Pacific Herring Declaration to pause the herring commercial fishery in the Strait of Georgia. We are excited to announce major steps towards this goal.

1. September 28, we will be presenting the evidence at the Herring Rising Forum Launch in Victoria at the Gorge Park Pavilion a co-sponsored event between Georgia Strait Alliance (GSA), WHC and HCRS. Doors open at 6:00PM. Featured speakers are Hereditary WSANEC Chief Eric Pelkey, leading the legal challenge, John Rich, the lead lawyer with Ratcliff and Drs. Amanda Bates, Loren McClenachan and Sara Ohayon from UVic.
2. The legal letter to DFO has secured a meeting with DFO (date proposed is mid-September) in which the WHC will present the scientific team including key W̱SÁNEĆ knowledge keepers. The legal question is: Have the commercial fisheries had a significant role to play in the decline of the herring and herring roe fisheries in W̱SÁNEĆ territory? The goal is to share the most recent evidence specifically with regard to “finer scale changes in herring spawning patterns and fisheries, herring distribution, and the potential for sub-stock structure in the SOG” which DFO indicated they were open to in their letter. The WHC will pursue the recommendation to bring that evidence into the court room if there is no decision to pause the fishery while this evidence is examined.
3. WHC and HCRS now have an MOU in place with GSA for our shared goals of herring conservation. Anyone who wants to donate to the Herring Rising campaign can now receive a charitable receipt from GSA which will go towards this shared campaign. https://georgiastrait.org/work/indigenous-sovereignty-stewardship/herring-rising/
4. HCRS, WHC and UVic have established various research partnerships and have over $130,000 dedicated to research questions regarding the ecological and social values of herring to the region and the W̱SÁNEĆ communities which will build the case for restoration, half of which will go to the nations themselves to build their argument.
5. We will also be supporting the changes to the Individual Transferable Quota Systems (ITQS) which have created the issues of monopolies and control of the industry. Strong Coast have written an excellent article on this that relates to the Canfisco control of the herring industry (80%) and the role of ITQs for getting the fishery into the mess it is.

Our goal is to raise $50,000 that evening preparing for the next legal steps with DFO. The intention is to provide the best case possible at this stage to avoid it going to the huge costs of a court battle.

The HCRS are still gratefully receiving donations from our Herring School members for maintaining our community organizing-role which is nimble, inclusive and keeps the larger institutions linked and grounded to the communities that they serve. Monthly or annual amounts are gratefully received to cover our very low admin. costs http://www.savetheherring.org

Thanks to all of our donors who have helped us so far in the collecting of evidence, especially Conservancy Hornby Island, Wild Island Foundation, RAVEN, Pacific Wild and Association of Denman Island Marine Stewards.

Background and History

Pivotal to winning the case is the evidence that commercial fisheries have had a significant role in the decline of the herring and herring roe fisheries in W̱SÁNEĆ territory impacting the ability to “fish as formerly” for herring and herring roe under their Douglas Treaty. WHC have been conducting video interviews with elders from Tsawout, Tseycum, Tsartlip and Malahat. Elders have described their previous ability to fish herring and gather roe outside their villages and the cultural aspects of herring. We have also been working with Drs. Amanda Bates and her Ocean Conservation Lab, Loren McClenachan, the Canada Research Chair of Ocean History and Sustainability, Darcy Mathews, Ethnoecologist, Ben Neal, Marine Ecologist and Sara Ohayon, a post doc Rothschild Travelling Scholar all from UVic to assemble the colonial histories of the fisheries, ethnoecological and archaeological histories and a detailed fisheries modelling analysis. Several grad students, Kai Muir and Jake Dingwall have been preparing papers over the last year for peer review. HCRS supporters have helped the WHC assemble the best team available to provide expert witness evidence. We believe the evidence is there.

Timeline

It is altogether a more hopeful picture than presented us ten months ago. It is all due to your support that we are where we are.

Please show your support by coming to the September 28th Herring Rising Forum where you will hear the directly from the lawyers, researchers and knowledge keepers themselves.

Briony Penn

p.s. Fantastic photography by Taylor Burk.