By Staff The Canadian Press

Atlantic herring is a hearty source of protein for people and marine mammals alike, but like a startling number of Canada’s fish stocks, the plan to rebuild the depleted herring population is currently one big question mark.

That’s a conclusion reached by advocacy group Oceana Canada, which published its second annual fisheries audit Tuesday — a report card assessing the health of Canada’s fish stocks.

The report found Canada has a lot of work to do to reverse the decline of its fish stocks, and it needs to pick up the pace.

Oceana’s science director Robert Rangeley said he hopes the audit is a “wake-up call” for better fisheries management.

“My biggest fear is one of complacency,” said Rangeley. “We’re still hovering around one-third of our fish stocks (that) are healthy, which is very poor performance for the 194 stocks that are so important for coastal communities.”

Only 34 per cent of Canada’s fish stocks are considered healthy. Twenty-nine per cent are in a critical or cautious zone, and perhaps most alarmingly, 37 per cent of stocks don’t have sufficient data to assign a health status.

Some, like Pacific herring in Haida Gwaii, slipped into the critical red zone this year.

The numbers are indicative of the slow policy implementation that plagues management of Canada’s fisheries, Rangeley said. The Oceana team expected to see more stocks move from the uncertain zone into one of the other categories this year, but in fact, the needle barely moved.

On the legislative front, the House of Commons passed revisions in June that will strengthen the Fisheries Act, including direction on rebuilding depleted stocks. If it becomes law and is supported by strong regulations, this could signal a turning point in the health of Canada’s fisheries.

Rangeley said government transparency has improved in recent years, giving his team access to the audit’s necessary data. But scientific reporting and assessment of stocks is slow and incomplete. Scientific and planning documents are often published late, or not at all.

Slow scientific publication means some stocks haven’t been assessed in years – and with the impacts of climate change affecting the ocean at a swift pace, it means some of the health assessments are becoming too outdated to plan around how to help improve the stock.
Of the 26 stocks that are assessed as critically depleted, only three have rebuilding plans in place. And even when those plans are published, the report notes that they are often based on out-of-date scientific assessments.

Atlantic Canada’s fin fish are most heavily represented among the critical stocks.
Rangeley said invertebrates like lobster and crab are more likely in good health than at-risk fin fish like cod and herring. However, rebuilding plans to bring struggling stocks back to health are notoriously slow to appear.

Perhaps the most famous example is the infamous cod moratorium in 1992 that devastated Newfoundland’s fishing communities. Twenty-six years on, there’s no plan in place to rebuild the Northern cod stock.

It’s not just an issue for the depleted stocks, said Rangeley. He recommends that a sense of urgency is applied to stocks in the cautious zone as well as the critical zone, because the more depleted they get, the harder it is to rebuild.

“It’s just a biological reality,” Rangeley said. “Knock ’em down too far for too long, the effort takes so much longer and it’s such a lost opportunity for a valuable seafood industry to just let such a waste occur.”

Striking the balance between a healthy ocean ecosystem and an economically viable, renewable food industry for small communities is not impossible, and it’s been done before, said Rangeley.

To run the fisheries right, more vigilance is required, the report said.

Some form of catch monitoring is in place for more than half of Canada’s stocks but the methods often don’t give a complete assessment of the catch, leading to big data gaps. And 159 stocks don’t have fishing mortality estimates, making it nearly impossible to set sustainable limits on the industry.
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The report recommends investing in science and management capacity, assessing stocks regularly and developing up-to-date, well-enforced rebuilding plans.
It also highlights the importance of timely reporting, and calls for a national ‘fishery monitoring policy’ that would compel all commercial fisheries to sufficiently keep track of yearly catches.

Good planning, Rangeley said, is essential to getting Canada’s fisheries back to a healthy, sustainable level for oceans and for people.
“You can sustainably harvest seafood indefinitely if you get it right, and we’re not,” he said.

By OCEANA
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TORONTO, Nov. 13, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The federal government is not meeting its commitments to sustainably manage and restore Canada’s fish populations, resulting in a less resilient and secure seafood industry, according to the latest report from Oceana Canada, a leading ocean advocacy organization.

Oceana Canada’s annual Fishery Audit reports on the state of fish stocks and tracks progress on how well the government is meeting its policy and management commitments. This year’s report reveals that recent investments made in federal fisheries science capacity have not yet yielded measurable change in fisheries management or stock health, and the organization is calling on the government to deliver on its commitments.

“The government is falling behind on commitments, including the development of rebuilding plans, which threatens the long-term health of the industry,” said Dr. Robert Rangeley, Oceana Canada’s director of science. “This is a crucial time for oceans and fisheries. Rebuilding abundance in our fisheries will make them more resilient to climate change and other cumulative environmental changes, so they can continue to be a sustainable source of protein and support the livelihoods of those who rely on them.”

The report states that only 34 per cent of Canada’s fish stocks are known to be healthy. Just over 13 per cent of stocks, including the iconic Northern cod, are critically depleted, requiring immediate rebuilding actions.
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Of the 26 critically depleted stocks, only three have rebuilding plans in place; all three plans do not include the recommended content based on global best practices, such as targets and timelines for recovery. In addition, more than 37 per cent of Canada’s most important fisheries lack adequate data to assess their status.

“It takes time for fish populations to rebuild, so stock health will change slightly each year. However, with management changes we expect to see more healthy stocks, fewer critical stocks, and fewer stocks with insufficient information,” said Rangeley. “Most importantly, we expect to see improvements in the metrics that assess how well the government is implementing policy and meeting commitments, such as completing rebuilding plans for critical stocks.”

Rangeley adds that if the federal government keeps its commitments, several fisheries management metrics would improve dramatically, including an over 40 per cent increase in the number of critically depleted stocks with rebuilding plans.

“Putting rebuilding plans in place to allow overfished stocks to recover has been proven to deliver results,” says Rangeley. “In the U.S., rebuilding plans became mandatory 20 years ago and 43 stocks have recovered generating an average of 50 per cent more revenue than when they were overfished.”

A proposed new Fisheries Act, Bill C-68, is now before the Senate. This Bill sets an expectation that stocks must be managed to healthy levels. If supported by strong regulations, it could set Canada’s fisheries on a path to abundance.

The 2018 Fishery Audit outlines key recommendations to the government that will support better management of Canada’s fisheries, including passing and implementing a new Fisheries Act, completing rebuilding plans, filling in data gaps and finalizing the Fishery Monitoring Policy.

The full report can be read online at FisheryAudit.ca.

For more information, please contact: David Berry, Pilot PMR, 416-462-0199 x248, 416-738-8730, david.berry@pilotpmr.com  
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About Oceana Canada
Oceana Canada is an independent charity and part of the largest international advocacy group dedicated solely to ocean conservation. Canada has the longest coastline in the world, with an ocean surface area of 7.1 million square kilometres, or 70 per cent of its landmass. Oceana Canada believes that Canada has a national and global obligation to manage our natural resources responsibly and help ensure a sustainable source of protein for the world’s growing population. Oceana Canada works with civil society, academics, fishers, Indigenous Peoples and the federal government to return Canada’s formerly vibrant oceans to health and abundance. By restoring Canada’s oceans, we can strengthen our communities, reap greater economic and nutritional benefits, and protect our future.