And another bites the dust.

Salish Sea "market" quotas remain uncaught, as the DFO, nor the press, has consulted with or made any assessment of the success of the Salish Sea First Nations herring egg fisheries; a frightening omen emerges of yet another herring stock collapse
After an amazingly long duration "scratch" roe herring in the Salish Sea, the roe herring fleets continue to be allowed, by the Honourable Gail Shea, to take herring about to spawn in the Nanoose area, with small catches, as the Salish Sea "quota" (obviously now a market based quota with no affiliations to biological sustainability) remains largely uncaught due to a lack of stocks, a situation made worse by the onslaught of El Nino this year.
But the DFO, nor the press, has consulted with or made any assessment of the success of the First Nations "herring egg on branch" fisheries in the Salish Sea in 2015. Yet these many Coast Salish First Nations community fisheries, with herring traditions just as well documented as the Heiltsuk Bella Bella herring fisheries in the news of late, also are supposed to have legal priority, before any commercial catches can be taken in the Salish Sea.
In a frightening omen of yet another stock collapse, a DFO spawn assessment "dive" vessel notes: (see below) "in area 17 south no significant stocks located and no spawn observed". These later spawning most and probably "resident" stocks [Nanaimo to Yellow Point to Saltspring Island] that spawn later than the "migratory stocks" [Nanoose to Hornby region] have in my opinion been decimated by a several years long Christmas period "winter fishery" that has targeted the "resident" herring in the Nanaimo area in 2014, and the Gulf Islands, on previous years. These herring do no leave the Salish Sea, and are vital to the rearing Chinook/killer whale/herring trilogy and a myriad of other beasts and birds such as Glaucous-winged gulls, that [a few decades ago] enjoyed much larger scientifically recorded levels of abundances (see below).
David Ellis
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Fishery Notice
Category(s):
COMMERCIAL - Herring - Roe: Gill Net
COMMERCIAL - Herring - Roe: Seine
COMMERCIAL - Herring - Roe: Test Fishery
COMMERCIAL - Herring: Spawn on Kelp
Subject:
FN0310-COMMERCIAL - Herring - Roe - Areas 14, 15, 17 and 18 - Strait of Georgia - April 2, 2015 Updates
________________________________________

ROE HERRING INFORMATION BULLETIN: 38

DATE: April 2, 2015

STRAIT OF GEORGIA

No spawn observed on the flight today between Saltspring Island and French
Creek. The dive vessel Viking Spirit has been assessing area 17 south and no
significant stocks located and no spawn observed. There will be a spawn flight
at 10:00AM Sunday April 4, 2015, weather permitting. Total linear distance of
spawn to date: 72.3 NM.

The gillnet fleet has not been active for several days. The Strait of Georgia
gillnet fishery catch is 4,168 tons of the 13,975 ton quota.

The seine fishery remains open until further notice in Subareas 14-1 to 14-13,
14-15, 17-10, 17-12, 17-13, 17-18, 17-19 and 17-21. Vessels are required to
carry an at sea observer when engaged in fishing as per the licence conditions.
One seine vessel is fishing in Area 17-18 and 17-19 today, estimated catch 100
tons. The total hailed and validated catch for the seine fishery is 9,110 tons
of the 15,440 ton quota.
Fisheries & Oceans Operations Center - FN0310
Sent April 2, 2015 at 1536
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Salish Sea seagull populations halved since 1980s
news.ubc.ca/.../salish-sea-seagull-populations-halved...Traducir esta página
27 de feb. de 2015 - The number of seagulls in the Strait of Georgia is down by 50 per cent ... of Glaucous-winged Gulls, the most common seagull species found in ...