Pacific herring are small, but their ecological importance is immense. Herring remain at the very heart of coastal ecosystems and Indigenous cultures. For millennia, communities have gathered herring eggs off of hemlock boughs to share and trade locally.

Herring are foundational to the British Columbia coast, channeling energy throughout the entire marine food web. They convert plankton into energy, which in turn sustains a wide array of life, including halibut, sea lions, humpback whales, and the endangered Southern Resident killer whales, as well as coastal human communities. The benefits extend to the land and air as well: nutrient-dense herring roe fuels the migration of countless seabirds, while bears and wolves feast on eggs washed ashore.

Despite their importance, decades of overfishing, mismanagement, and flawed science have pushed many herring stocks to historic lows. Current management compares modern populations to already depleted numbers — a classic example of shifting baseline syndrome — which obscures the scale of decline. Archaeological evidence suggests herring have dropped to roughly 1% of their former abundance in parts of the province and have vanished from some areas entirely. Ongoing harvest pressure now threatens their recovery.

The solutions are clear:
A moratorium on industrial herring kill fisheries until stocks return to healthy, sustainable levels.
A shift toward ecosystem-based management that prioritizes biodiversity and Indigenous knowledge over short-term harvest.
Differentiation between migratory and resident herring populations in management plans.

Take action today:
https://pacificwild.org/action/voice-your-opposition-of-bc-unsustainable-herring-fishery/