Research Document - 2007/040
2007 Evaluation of 4VWX Herring
By Power, M.J., K.J. Clark, F.J. Fife, D. Knox, G.D. Melvin and R.L. Stephenson
Abstract
Landings in the southwest Nova Scotia/Bay of Fundy spawning component in 2006 of 49,160t were about the same as the previous year. The reduced quota has not been in place for a sufficient time to result in improvements to the biological characteristics of the population. There continued to be signs of deterioration in the state of the stock. Size distribution in the catch remained contracted, with little improvement in the proportion of larger and older fish in the fishery. The acoustic survey index from the spawning grounds in 2006 indicated a slight increase in spawning stock biomass (SSB) from 2005. There has also been little progress towards defined conservation objectives in recent years and most objectives are not being met.
There was an increase in landings to 9,800t from the offshore Scotian Shelf banks by purse seine, midwater and bottom trawl. The bottom trawl research survey catches demonstrated herring widely distributed over the Scotian Shelf but survey catches have declined substantially from the high of 2004.
There was an increase in surveyed acoustic biomass in the Halifax/Eastern Shore area while the Little Hope area saw a large decline. There was no survey effort and little catch in the Glace Bay area in 2006. The Bras d’Or lakes fishery was again closed and there was no sampling from this area.
The landings in the traditional New Brunswick weir and shutoff juvenile herring fishery remained low at 12,900t and there is a trend of decreasing landings over the past ten years. There was a large proportion of small recruiting herring in the weir catches during the 2006 season.
Accessibility Notice
This document is available in PDF format. If the document is not accessible to you, please contact the Secretariat to obtain another appropriate format, such as regular print, large print, Braille or audio version.
- Date modified: