Question Period Note: Southwest Nova Scotia / Bay of Fundy Herring Management

Southwest Nova Scotia / Bay of Fundy Herring
Management

Herring is an important commercial and ecological species in Atlantic Canada. Despite reductions in the fishery, the herring stock in Southwest Nova Scotia and the Bay of Fundy has dropped into the critical zone.

The Department’s objective is to continue working closely with our partners and stakeholders to rebuild the stock so that it can continue to support fishing communities for future generations.

The last stock assessment was held on March 31st. The science advice is that the stock can be rebuilt, but clearly more reductions in fishing mortality are needed.

The Department’s decision on a total allowable catch (TAC) for Southwest Nova Scotia / Bay of Fundy herring will be based on science.

If pressed on the implementation of the new Management Strategy Evaluation

We know from the science evaluation that significant cuts in the total allowable catch will be needed to rebuild the stock.

A smaller cut in 2022 may mean even deeper cuts in the following years. This is the trade-off that needs to be understood.

The science is sound. It has been under development since 2019, and it has passed scientific peer review. Based on the science, a total allowable catch at 25,000 tonnes will not allow the stock to rebuild.

Having a strong herring fishery in the future means that we need to put conservation first.

• The Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat (CSAS) convened a Science Advisory Process on March 31, 2022, to assess the biological and fishery information for the four Atlantic herring stock components in DFO’s Maritimes Region.
• For the fourth consecutive year since 2018, the Southwest Nova Scotia / Bay of Fundy Atlantic herring stock was assessed as being in the critical zone according to Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s (DFO) Precautionary Approach (PA) policy.
• According to the PA policy fish stock is designated to be in the critical zone when there is a high probability that its productivity will be so impaired that serious harm will occur. The PA also suggests that, for critical zone stocks, conservation concerns are paramount and there is no tolerance for preventable declines.
• The results of a three-year Management Strategy Evaluation (MSE), including several proposed precautionary harvest strategies for the stock, were reviewed during the recent science advisory meeting.
• MSEs involve developing and simulation testing the performance of harvest strategies against a suite of fishery management objectives and across a range of uncertainties.
• Several harvest strategies developed by a working group comprised of DFO managers and scientists and partners and stakeholders with interests in the fishery were evaluated within the MSE to determine their likelihood of rebuilding the stock out of the critical zone.
• The most optimistic of these harvest strategies that meet DFO’s minimum requirement for rebuilding indicates that a greater than 64 per cent reduction in last season’s TAC would need to be applied in 2022. However, the industry has continued to work with DFO Science following the science advisory meeting to see whether a more gradual reduction in the TAC could still meet minimum rebuilding objectives. Options are being examined currently.
• The commercial herring fishery is open, but fishing does not get underway in earnest until June. A harvest strategy needs to be selected in the next few weeks so that a TAC can be set for 2022 in advance of fishing.

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