Commercial Herring - North Coast

For official Fishery Notices, visit our Fishery Notices site.

See below for north coast Current Fishery Information for Herring Gillnet and Herring Seine.

Pacific herring are an oceanic species that are found in both the inshore and offshore waters of the North Pacific. In the eastern Pacific they range from California to the Beaufort Sea. Herring reach spawning maturity predominantly between ages two and five. Recruitment to this spawning stock tends to occur at younger ages in southern waters, and older ages in the north. In the North Coast Area, the Prince Rupert District (PRD) herring stock and the Queen Charlotte Island (QCI) herring stock are two of the five major B.C. herring stocks. The fishery began here at the turn of the century but did not become extensive until the expansion of the dry-salted fishery in the 1930's and a reduction fishery in the 1940's. The stock declined as part of a coastwide stock collapse from overfishing in the early 1960s, resulting in the close of the reduction fishery in 1967.

Following a combination of favourable environmental conditions and a low harvestrate, the stock recovered by the mid-1970s. The current roe fishery began in 1972. Currently, the target harvest rate of herring is fixed at 20 percent of the forecast mature stock biomass, when the stock size is sufficiently above the threshold or minimum desired spawning stock (referred to as the cutoff level). Recent assessments indicate that the mature herring biomass in both PRD and QCI remains well above the cutoff level, and should continue to sustain a modest fishery.

Current Fishery Information

Herring Gillnet

Information of upcoming openings will be updated as it becomes available.

Herring Seine

Information of upcoming openings will be updated as it becomes available.