When Kurt Irwin was growing up near Salt Spring Island on British Columbia’s southern coast, spring meant herring season. He remembers the ocean turning white as the small fish filled the harbours, the sky alive with gulls and salmon chasing them just below the surface.

“We haven’t seen that in many years... They [commercial fishing boats] literally fished it out,” said the now 58-year-old Irwin, a councillor for the Penelakut Tribe, located near Chemainus on Vancouver Island. Their members have also been pushing for a five-year moratorium on commercial herring fisheries to allow stocks to recover.

For the 2025–26 season, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) approved the harvest of more than 2,000 tons of herring from the Salish Sea for the winter food and bait fishery. The move comes despite First Nations groups including WSÁNEĆ leadership council repeatedly calling for moratoriums on commercial herring fisheries in the Salish Sea.​

Tsawout Hereditary Chief Eric Pelkey and conservation groups rally at DFO’s Vancouver office on November 17, 2025, calling for an immediate moratorium on commercial herring fishing. File Photo by Sonal Gupta / Canada’s National Observer.

The wildlife advocacy group Pacific Wild documented commercial vessels fishing at night in mid-January in the Strait of Georgia, pulling tonnes of herring out of BC waters.

“DFO should be focusing on herring restoration, distribution abundance — not allowing these remaining fragile populations to be exploited,” said Ian McAllister, conservation advisor with Pacific Wild, in a press release.

Irwin said their communities were not consulted on the quota or harvest rate changes. "I don’t think they should be doing it no matter what time of day it is. Nighttime or daytime," he said. “Our elders are concerned because the herring have not come back to spawn in many years, and so it’s a food source that we no longer have anymore that used to be very important to us.”​

“What is a good number? Is it the scientists that go out and do a test set and they say, oh, we found herring here, so there’s lots or is it the elders in the First Nations who have been living off it for thousands of years?”​ Kurt Irwin said.

Tsawout hereditary chief Eric Pelkey, who has been leading the WSÁNEĆ leadership council call to stop commercial herring fishing, said the spawning grounds near their communities in the southern Strait of Georgia have mostly vanished and it’s been about 25 years since they’ve seen a significant herring spawn. “We want the commercial industry out of our territory completely. Let everything revive,” he told* Canada’s National Observer* in November.

A freighter anchored off Penelakut Island in the Strait of Georgia, a key herring migration corridor, as an orca surfaces close to its bow. Photo submitted by Kurt Irwin.

Pacific Wild warns that the 2025–26 food and bait fishery takes away year-round food from endangered Chinook salmon (62 per cent of their diet is herring) and starving Southern Resident killer whales. It brought in just $5.1 million landed value — the dockside price paid to fishers — in 2023, compared to $102 million from herring-dependent wild fisheries and $5 billion in marine tourism.

“We are literally taking essential prey from the mouths of endangered Chinook salmon and Southern Resident killer whales, at the same time that starvation is a leading cause of their decline,” McAllister said.

*Canada’s National Observer *reached out to DFO for comment, but did not hear back before the publication deadline.

Treaty fishing rights

In November 2025, Pelkey rallied with conservationists outside DFO’s Vancouver office to demand a moratorium on commercial herring fishing and sought a legal opinion from Ratcliff LLP to assess whether the DFO’s fishery decision violates their Douglas Treaty rights. The Douglas Treaties preserve First Nations’ right to continue their fisheries as they have historically.

The legal opinion supported the WSÁNEĆ hereditary chiefs, opening the door for a potential lawsuit to prove stocks are crashing and secure a moratorium, said Briony Penn, treasurer and co-director of the Herring Conservation and Restoration Society. She has collaborated with Pelkey and W̱SÁNEĆ communities since the 1990s to restore herring through traditional knowledge and western science.

She said it was disappointing to watch nighttime harvest footage. “This fishery is exactly what the legal challenge is going to be stopping... It’s heartbreaking — they’re just scooping the fish right through the same waters we’re trying to protect,” Penn said. “It’s like people sitting at the edge of a national park shooting grizzlies."

Pacific Wild documented commercial boats harvesting of herring from the Strait of Georgia, one of BC’s last open fishing grounds, amid concerns over declining stocks. Photo submitted by: Pacific Wild.

Penn said W̱SÁNEĆ hereditary chiefs and their allies now plan to send a letter to DFO outlining treaty rights, evidence and expert witnesses supporting their call for a moratorium. They aim to put the department “on notice" before advancing to a potential lawsuit.

Lawyers described the case as strong, Penn said. It builds on prior precedents such as Claxton v. Saanichton Marina where the BC Supreme Court first addressed Douglas Treaty fishing rights, she added. The court granted Tsawout First Nation a permanent injunction halting construction of a marina in Saanichton Bay, finding it would interfere with their treaty-secured fishing rights.

But taking a civil case to court takes a lot of time and is very expensive, she added.

Monitoring gap and impact

The core issue driving the conflict is a growing divide over the science itself. Federal stock assessments classify BC herring as “healthy,” while Indigenous and conservation groups point to a long-term decline. Critics say DFO’s models rely on limited, recent data and overlook generations of traditional knowledge documenting consistently larger spawning runs.

“What is a good number? Is it the scientists that go out and do a test set and they say, oh, we found herring here, so there’s lots or is it the elders in the First Nations who have been living off it for thousands of years?”​ Irwin said.

Penelakut Tribe Councillor Kurt Irwin, right, accompanies Nation members on a boat trip to discuss herring conservation and the effects of freighter traffic on local waters. Photo submitted by Kurt Irwin.

Along other parts of the coast, nations such as the Haida and Heiltsuk have successfully halted fisheries in their territories, pushing DFO to recognize their stewardship authority.

But Irwin, who also serves on the Marine Shipping Subcommittee with Vancouver Island chiefs, said Penelakut faces a greater challenge due to denser marine traffic in the busy Strait of Georgia. He said there are more First Nations, heavy shipping such as freighters and ferries that disrupt spawning, expanding ports and commercial interests that resist bans.

“We’re advocating for our food sources and the health of the ocean,” Irwin said. “I don’t think you can put a price on it myself... What is the ultimate price on that? Everything relies on it. No herring, no salmon, no herring, no whales, no herring, no seals.”​

Sonal Gupta / Local Journalism Initiative / Canada’s National Observer.