GOV T HERRING HARVEST LABORATORY
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'We can't let them all out for harvest Lefs keep two tor breeding.'
HERRING
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
fishery," he said, "and haven't even read the stock assessments."
Estimated runs for the five herring management areas and cutoff levels below which harvest is banned are:
• Queen Charlotte Islands: total run 19,900 tonnes; fishery cutoff 13,100 tonnes; recommended catch (for all purposes) 4,000 tonnes;
• Prince Rupert District: total run 37,200 tonnes, fishery cutoff 8,900 tonnes; recommended catch 7,440 tonnes;
• Central Coast: forecast run 17,000 tonnes; fishery cutoff, 11,100 tonnes; catch 3,400 tonnes (later reduced to 2,600 tonnes because of declining stocks);
• Strait of Georgia: 21,600 tonnes; fishery cutoff 20,800 tonnes; harvest 800 tonnes for charity, food and bait.
• West Coast Vancouver Island: run 19,300 tonnes; cutoff 21,400 tonnes, no harvest.
Webb said Oct. 17 that the department believes slightly warmer water temperatures in the south are responsible for continued serious weakness in the stocks.
Central Area stocks are weak, he said, and Queen Charlotte Island stocks are in decline. "The only place for enthusiasm is in Prince Rupert."
Gulf of Georgia stock sizes have been calculated by eliminating the three-year-old stock to achieve more conservative results.
Webb is opposed to a total closure because he believes har-vestable surpluses are available in the north. (Details of stock assessments are on page 14.) Because northern and southern
stocks are separate, he argues, closures in the north would not help the south.
Why did the licensing branch suggest such a total closure as an option? "There's a cost to a fishery," he replied, a certain number of dollars to get the fishery in motion.
"We don't know what the costs are. There may be a time when costs are high enough that it's not worth going fishing. I don't think it's there yet, but it may be marginal."
Northern stocks still provide "an excess that amounts to a $25 million fishery for the industry," Webb said. "We feel the excess in Prince Rupert, if taken, won't affect the recovery of stocks in Prince Rupert. It's worth a lot of money to the industry. If we thought it would affect recovery in the south, it would be a different story."
Despite the complex problems associated with the fishery, Webb insisted the department needed to make a management decision by Oct. 24. Proposals include a two-for-one licence pooling system or a system requiring half the fleet to stay home on the assumption it fish next year while the 1986 fleet ties up.
Radosevic said none of the department's proposals was acceptable to the union because there is no protection for deckhands. The three scenarios proposed for a "temporary" fleet reduction were:
• ) random choice of lottery;
• ) even/odd licensing — in 1986 even-numbered licences fish, and in 1987 odd-numbered licences fish;
•) two-for-one — one licence for every two applicants and in 1986, one applicant would have to agree not to fish.
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