Heiltsuk First Nation promised last week to sabotage commercial fishermen - A central coast First Nation is calling for an emergency meeting with fishermen and officials to defuse an escalating conflict over the imminent opening of a commercial herring roe fishery that’s been closed since 2006.
A central coast First Nation is calling for an emergency meeting with fishermen and officials to defuse an escalating conflict over the imminent opening of a commercial herring roe fishery that’s been closed since 2006.
Last week the Heiltsuk First Nation promised to sabotage the commercial fishermen and blamed federal fisheries minister Gail Shea for the rising tension over a forthcoming commercial gillnet fishery that has reportedly resulted in more than 20 RCMP descending on Denny Island near Bella Bella to guard against potential interference.
Now, with roughly 20 licenced boats set to enter the area later this week, the Heiltsuk are asking the RCMP, the ministry and an industry group to hold an emergency teleconference today to avert an on-the-water conflict, according to band councillor Reg Moody.
“We need to talk,” Moody said Sunday. “The big thing is we feel like it’s unnecessary that it’s even come to this because we feel that the fish are more valuable left in the water.”
The Heiltsuk want the minister to add a 20,000-tonne “cushion” to the total catch allowed to help ensure sufficient stocks for aboriginals. Moody questioned a recent decision on another herring roe fishery announced March 17 by the Herring Industry Advisory Board, a group of herring fishermen and processor representatives. In that agreement, the fishing industry, federal government and Haida First Nation agreed to halt a commercial fishery and an aboriginal spawn-on-kelp fishery.
Board chairman Greg Thomas said his group stands by the decision to fish commercially for 750 tonnes of herring roe on the central coast, but welcomed the meeting with the Heiltsuk.
“The modest fishery that currently is planned for the coast is not going to limit rebuilding in that population,” Thomas said Sunday, noting there’s also “ample fish” for a planned 108-tonne spawn-on-kelp fishery planned by the Heiltsuk.
For over a month, Shea’s office has refused to respond to Heiltsuk’s concerns about the fishery, Moody said. Shea, a P.E.I. MP, declined a previous Vancouver Sun request for an interview and no one from her office or the Department of Fisheries and Oceans was available to comment Sunday.
Three aboriginal groups along the B.C. coast have protested commercial herring-roe fisheries this season.
The Nuu-chah-nulth obtained a Federal Court injunction Feb. 21 blocking a commercial fishery on the west coast of Vancouver Island. The decision came after an internal memo revealed Shea overruled recommendations of scientists in her own department.
For every region on the coast, a “commercial cutoff” is established based on the health of herring stocks in that region. When stocks exceed the cutoff, commercial fishing is allowed at rates as high as 20 per cent of the biomass.
Herring expert and University of B.C. professor emeritus Doug Hay said there is “a fairly rigid protocol for assessments and determination of potential catch” and that the risk of the commercial fishery hurting the overall central coast population is small.
In 2006 the fishery was cancelled after it fell below the commercial cutoff point and Moody said about 40 boats of Heiltsuk people took to the seas in protest. Now, Moody said Heiltsuk protesters are willing to be arrested. “We’ve made it clear that at all costs we will interrupt the fishery.
“It’s getting closer, we’re past the 11th hour,” Moody said.
Hay called the potential conflict between fishermen and the Heiltsuk regrettable.
“I think they’re all decent people and the people at odds with each other aren’t necessarily the ones that are making the decisions,” Hay said.
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