"ENDANGERED HERRING"?Why Now, And Why Only Lynn Canal?

SitNews
Ketchikan, Alaska
October 01, 2007

Viewpoints
By Andy Rauwolf, John Harrington, Snapper Carson

"We find it quite interesting that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has recently considered listing the Lynn Canal herring stocks as either threatened or endangered. NMFS has maintained a laboratory in Juneau for about 3/4 of a century and has conducted extensive research on the once huge Lynn Canal herring stock as well as many other herring populations throughout S.E. Alaska. In 1982, after 5 years of intense herring sac roe fishing, then Governor Sheffield was persuaded to override an order by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) for an emergency closure of the Lynn Canal herring fishery and open the fishery. This last thrust depleted the herring stocks to a level which could no longer sustain the population of whales, sea lions, and salmon that had thrived on it, causing its collapse..."

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An expose on the history and controversy surrounding commercial herring management in Southeast Alaskan fisheries (excluding Sitka Sound)

SitNews
Ketchikan, Alaska
January 17, 2007

A Public Point of View
By Andy RauwolfKetchikan Area Herring Action Group

"Herring have been considered by scientists as the "backbone of the ocean vertebrae food chain," and the "ice cream of the ocean". These rich, oily fish provide essential nutrition to virtually every predator fish, as well as marine mammals, from seals and stellar sea lions, to humpback, mink, and blue whales, along with a host of sea birds. What would happen if we lost this resource? Although there is no conclusive "scientific" link, 20 years after the herring stocks collapsed on the Grand Banks, the Cod fishery ended, putting 30,000 fishermen out of work. Although this question is hypothetical, in light of events currently happening up and down the Pacific Coast, it must now be asked..."

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