Critical B.C. herring being used for pet food say conservationists, First Nations [Video]

The annual British Columbia herring fishery is underway, but not without controversy.

Critics, including First Nations and conservationists, are calling for a moratorium on the herring harvest.

The fish are one of the foundations of the food chain in the Salish Sea that support other fish and marine mammals.

But where they were once incredibly abundant, decades of commercial fishing have reduced their population to a fraction of what it once was.

“Herring were found everywhere, they spawned almost on all the shorelines,” said Ian McAllister, with the Conservation group Pacific Wild.

Over the last few winters, he’s tracked the commercial herring fishery in the Strait of Georgia and believes Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) is making a mistake in approving it this year.

He’s not alone.

“It just doesn’t make any sense that DFO is letting this go and they’re bending to the will of the Commercial Herring Fishery,” said Tsawout Hereditary …