The roe is removed and sold to Japan—the same market and only market. So the spawn-on-kelp fishery relative to the roe herring fishery is small, and therefore the Heiltsuk believe the quantity provided by the department through the negotiations is inadequate.
In a couple of years, we've had protests and challenging situations that have destabilized both the spawn-on-kelp fishery and the roe herring fishery on the central coast. In two instances, the RCMP was involved to try to stabilize that situation, along with our fishery officers.
In order to bring some stability to that situation, particularly to try to stabilize both the spawn-on-kelp fishery and the roe herring fishery, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, the commercial roe herring fishery, and the Heiltsuk entered into a memorandum of understanding in 2006. That memorandum of understanding essentially laid out some roles and responsibilities, clarified who would do what to whom under what circumstances, and resulted in very strong cooperation in 2006.
In 2006 we implemented the fishery for spawn-on-kelp for the Heiltsuks, and we carried out a roe herring fishery for both natives and non-natives, and we did so without incident, with exceptional cooperation among all the parties. We believe we had a very successful 2006 fishery.
In terms of the next steps, we are continuing to work with the Heiltsuk First Nation, with the herring industry advisory board—the board comprised of the roe herring industry, both first nation and non-native—spawn-on-kelp license holders, bait pond impoundments, and all interests that use herring to arrive at a consensus on the management of the 2007 fishery, beginning sometime in the spring. All spawn-on-kelp license holders have been contacted to participate in this exercise. We are also looking at the opportunity for mediation between the parties—again to try to seek long-term solutions to the impasses I referred to earlier. We will continue also to work with the roe herring fishery, because the roe herring fishery, like the spawn-on-kelp fishery, has faced similar market forces: a single market, changes in the Canadian dollar relative to the Japanese yen, and so forth. They too are struggling to adjust to the new economic realities that we have in the roe herring fishery. We are also working with an integrated management group, including not only the herring users, the commercial industry, but also recreational interests and NGO interests to talk about the integrated use of herring as we move forward to the future.
I have included the final point, members, in the appendix as a table. The table notes the landings from 2001 to 2005 in the spawn-on-kelp fishery. The middle column is the landings in kilograms and the right-hand column is the price per kilogram. As you will note here, the landings from 2001 to 2004 were relatively stable, at about 400,000 kilograms, and the price declined significantly. In 2005 the landings were less, and the price still declined. It's our view that the shifts in the Japanese market and the global factors I spoke of are the principal reasons for this decline in price.
Thank you.