The total allowable catch (TAC) for the 4VWX herring fishery has been cut by 11 per cent this year to 21,000 metric tonnes, down 50 per cent from the 42,500-tonne quota in 2018.
With the Southwest Nova Scotia/Bay of Fundy Atlantic herring stock in the critical zone for the fifth year in a row, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) has been decreasing the TAC to promote recovery, says Lauren Sankey, DFO communications advisor for the Maritimes Region.
“DFO reduced the TAC from 42,500 tonnes in 2018 to 35,000 tonnes in 2019. In 2020 and 2021, the TAC for Southwest Nova Scotia/Bay of Fundy Atlantic herring was 35,000 tonnes. In 2022, the TAC for Southwest Nova Scotia/Bay of Fundy Atlantic herring was 23,450 tonnes,” said Sankey.
Conservationists are critical of the 21,000-tonne quota, saying it’s considerably higher than the maximum 14,000-tonne TAC required to rebuild the stock out of the critical zone.
“For a second year in a row, the Minister has chosen to bypass the multi-year stakeholder process that developed harvest rules to rebuild the stock out of the critical zone within 10 years,” said Sebastián Pardo, Sustainable Fisheries Coordinator at the Ecology Action Centre in a media release.
“The Minister seems to only be listening to industry and ignoring other stakeholders, particularly when it comes to rebuilding this depleted stock. It begs the question as to why DFO is spending so much public money on science and management frameworks that do not get adopted. Sadly, this decision is yet another example of ministerial discretion hindering recovery and hurting our marine ecosystems.”
Katie Schleit, Fisheries Director at Oceans North, said this year’s decision “ignores the larger long-term benefits that would come from rebuilding the herring stock. A recent cost-benefit analysis shows that the value of leaving forage fish in the water to rebuild, support ecosystem function and provide food for other organisms is approximately $1.6 billion. DFO is failing at its duty to rebuild populations and to consider scientific advice, ecosystem management and the views of other stakeholders.”
For industry, the quota cuts over the past five years have “been tremendously challenging for both fleet operations and processing that were geared for higher TAC levels, but industry ultimately supports whatever is necessary to ensure the long-term sustainability of the fishery,” said Ian McIsaac, president of the Seafood Producers Association of Nova Scotia.
“The TAC cut is challenging for fleet operations by making it much more difficult to sustain crews during shorter and uncertain fishing seasons as well as maintaining expensive vessels and gear. The TAC cut is also challenging for local processing plants that rely on the fishery. It’s very difficult for some processors to source enough product to support their operations and, to the extent that they’re able to carry on, it puts increasing pressure on their costs, making competition with herring products from other countries much more intense. Further cuts to the TAC could make some processors uncompetitive and this would have a very vicious circle in terms of local jobs, communities and other fisheries. In the near term, I would expect to see increased prices for bait, fish meal and other uses,” said McIsaac.
Last year, the Bay of Fundy Herring Industry, in collaboration with the Herring Science Council, unveiled a plan to sustain and rebuild the herring stocks in the Bay of Fundy, which called for a reduction of the TAC to 25,000 metric tonnes, representing a decrease of 30 per cent from the previous year and 50 per cent over the past five years. The plan also called for increased management measures and scientific support by industry.
“The main plank of the industry plan last year was to engage an international expert to review the Management Strategy Evaluation (MSE) framework that had been developed by DFO for this fishery. Industry was able to engage Dr. Doug Butterworth, a pioneer in MSE, who has identified some concerns with the framework that was adopted by DFO. It seems that DFO is taking some time to assess these concerns as they’ve decided not to implement MSE for this year. The mobile gear fleet is keen to see Dr. Butterworth’s work continue and are supportive of finding a long-term plan for sustainability that accommodates local harvesting and processing,” said McIsaac.
Voluntary management measures implemented by industry, such as closures of major spawning grounds, seasonal and weekend closures and increased protection for juvenile fish, are key elements that remain in place in the 4VWX herring fishery, said McIsaac. “Industry plans to continue these as we’ve seen much improvement over the past several years in terms of the age structure of the fishery, the weights at age and the survey results.”
Last year, the herring quota was fully caught, said McIsaac, but with the late announcement for the quota this year and the current management measures that are in place, “there’s certainly concern about being able to fully catch this year’s quota.”
In 2022, the landed value of the Southwest Nova Scotia/Bay of Fundy Atlantic herring commercial fishery was approximately $19.5 million.
The herring fishery in Southwest Nova Scotia/Bay of Fundy operated previously under an October-to-October cycle, said Sankey.
As of January 2021, the fishery has operated under a calendar-year cycle, with the annual TAC applying to the period of January 1 through December 31.
“Typically, the fishery is authorized to start on January 1 with an interim TAC, while the TAC is finalized based on science advice. The fishery generally opens sometime in June,” she said.
The TAC is broken down by fleet as follows: midwater trawl: 0.8 per cent; purse seine: 79.36 per cent; and gill net, trap net, weir, bait: 19.84 per cent.
