{"id":939,"date":"2026-02-22T00:50:36","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T00:50:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/savetheherring.org\/?p=939"},"modified":"2026-02-26T00:57:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T00:57:15","slug":"update-on-herring-fisheries-february-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/savetheherring.org\/?p=939","title":{"rendered":"Update on Herring Fisheries, February 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.27.0″ _module_preset=”default” da_disable_devices=”off|off|off” global_colors_info=”{}” da_is_popup=”off” da_exit_intent=”off” da_has_close=”on” da_alt_close=”off” da_dark_close=”off” da_not_modal=”on” da_is_singular=”off” da_with_loader=”off” da_has_shadow=”on”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.27.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding=”0px|||||”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.27.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

The Food and Bait Fishery is over for this year and it was not as productive as the fishers wanted.\u00a0 They couldn’t fill their quota, never a sign that the stock is big and healthy.\u00a0 They had a quota of 2100 tonnes but only got 1732 short tons.\u00a0 The bulk of the harvest was in Northumberland Channel, which is between Nanaimo and Gabriola Island.\u00a0 There has been a recovering spawn around Thetis and Penelakut Islands just south of Northumberland Channel and we are concerned that some of those recovering spawners were harvested.\u00a0 We could tell by DNA testing which finally DFO is capable of…but no…the DNA testing lab is moving to Port Hardy.\u00a0 Very very far away from any fishing boats.<\/span><\/p>\n

About 120 tons were harvested off of Qualicum and about 50 tons were harvested off Maude Island near Lantzville.<\/span><\/p>\n

DFO has hired a few seiners to go out and survey herring with their depth sounders, a process called acoustic survey.\u00a0 This survey is not exactly accurate but it does provide a location and estimation of the herring present.\u00a0 Norway has researched and refined the acoustic survey and set their harvest accordingly.\u00a0 This gives\u00a0 a better idea of the returning biomass.\u00a0 DFO does not use the acoustic survey to set quotas on harvest. DFO uses a complicated algorithm to calculate the quota back in July, and if the acoustic survey shows a poor return, too bad the quota was set in stone in July.<\/span><\/p>\n

Right now, Feb 22, the acoustic survey is showing small amounts of herring in the south and 2450 tonnes at Komas Bluffs on the northeast shore of Denman Island.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

You can get more information on the acoustic surveys by following on Facebook, Pacific Herring Spawn Reporting – IMAWG<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

As ever, give me a call if you want to talk herring for an hour or two. <\/span><\/p>\n

— <\/span>Jim Shortreed, 250 937 9475<\/span><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pr\u00e9cis of DFO Bulletins with Observations by Jim Shortreed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":944,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/savetheherring.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/savetheherring.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/savetheherring.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savetheherring.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savetheherring.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=939"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/savetheherring.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":949,"href":"https:\/\/savetheherring.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939\/revisions\/949"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savetheherring.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/savetheherring.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savetheherring.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savetheherring.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}