Fisheries Committee on March 11th, 2026

[Ghislain Collin]

For spring herring, it would be gillnets. For mackerel, it would be hooks. In the case of mackerel, we're somewhat reluctant to use gillnets, because that's the period when the fish are spawning. However, if the Department of Fisheries and Oceans wants data, gillnets could be used.

[Clifford Small, Conservative, Central Newfoundland, NL]

Now, I—

[The Chair, Liberal, Patrick Weiler]

Thank you very much, Mr. Small.

I'm sorry, but we are right at time.

Next we are going to Mr. Morrissey for six minutes.

[Bobby Morrissey, Liberal, Egmont, PE]

Thank you, Chair.

I want to focus more on the herring fishery, because we have not had a lot of discussion about it here, and we're referencing the spring herring fishery.

Mr. Barlow, could you brief the committee on the difference between the spring and the fall herring fisheries? Are they different stocks?

[Trevor Barlow]

Yes, they are two totally different stocks. Genetically, it's been proven that when one spawns in the spring, it's a different component compared to the fall.

[Bobby Morrissey, Liberal, Egmont, PE]

Your testimony was referencing, from your perspective, the health of the spring herring stock. Am I correct?

[Trevor Barlow]

Yes, that's correct.

[Bobby Morrissey, Liberal, Egmont, PE]

That's what I want to focus on. You said that from your perspective, it looks very healthy, and then you made a reference to the changes DFO made in science methodology. Can you expand a bit more, from your perspective as a fisher, on what they changed in the methodology that you view as not adequately capturing the true health of the biomass?

[Trevor Barlow]

When the TAC wasn't being met by fishers, DFO went looking for a reason they were overestimating the TAC. One of the reasons they came up with was that the acoustic survey possibly could have been counting fish twice. As they moved out of the bay in their boat, they assumed they followed the fish to the east, but there was no evidence to prove that's what was happening; they just assumed that.

They reduced the acoustic survey from doing the whole southern gulf to just doing the inside of Chaleur Bay and a small portion outside of the bay, when, in fact, they used to do all of the north shore of P.E.I., in and around Pictou Island and up the west coast of Cape Breton.

[Bobby Morrissey, Liberal, Egmont, PE]

You said the stock biomass was underestimated and that the fishery...it once was. Could you explain that a bit more?

[Trevor Barlow]

I don't....

[Bobby Morrissey, Liberal, Egmont, PE]

You referenced that they're not capturing the fishery that it once was because they're underestimating stock biomass.

[Trevor Barlow]

If you look at just acoustics, you have nothing else to input to show abundances. There used to be a CPUE from the commercial fishery, a phone survey and a few other things that went into it, but they have nothing other than the acoustic survey to show abundance now.

[Bobby Morrissey, Liberal, Egmont, PE]

Do they only do the one type of survey on spring herring?

[Trevor Barlow]

Since the closure, they started a test net fishery, which is a small net that—

[Bobby Morrissey, Liberal, Egmont, PE]

Is that the one you were referencing about them only allowing you 10 nets?

[Trevor Barlow]

No, that was in the mackerel survey.

In the spring herring, there's a small test net. It has different panels of nets, and when you hang it up, the panels hang in a “V” like an hourglass. That wouldn't catch a fish even if you tried to drive one into it, and they're trying to make a model out of that. It will catch a fish, I guess. Maybe that's all they want.

[Bobby Morrissey, Liberal, Egmont, PE]

Was that herring or mackerel?

[Trevor Barlow]

That was herring.

[Bobby Morrissey, Liberal, Egmont, PE]

As a long-term fisher, your view would be that it would not have adequately or accurately reflected what may have been in the water. Is that correct?

[Trevor Barlow]

You'd probably get some age discrepancies in the different panels, but there's no way to possibly get an abundance from that.

[Bobby Morrissey, Liberal, Egmont, PE]

You made reference to a management-induced fishery.

[Trevor Barlow]

That was in the mackerel.

[Bobby Morrissey, Liberal, Egmont, PE]

Yes.

[Trevor Barlow]

Back in the early 2000s, when the.... Are you talking about adding the seine fishery?