If the harvest regime included Steller's sea lions, which are currently protected, we think it would have a substantial benefit to the herring fishery, particularly on the west coast of Vancouver Island and up in Haida Gwaii. The fisheries in those areas for herring have been closed for almost 20 years now because of very low survival rates and very high natural mortality rates in the herring, which we calculate is largely due to the Steller's sea lion. Those fisheries would be at least partially restored and made more resilient.
Steller's sea lions can exert what is called depensatory mortality. When they eat a certain amount of herring, it doesn't mean anything if the herring population is large; it's a small percentage of the population that has been eaten. However, when a herring stock gets reduced when they have poor recruitment or something, that same Steller's sea lion consumption has a much bigger impact on them. The Steller's sea lion is a continued threat driving herring populations down to low levels for long periods of time.