The OMF will host a Herring Summit in Richmond, British Columbia, June 8-10, 2015, to launch its second working group, focused on incorporating human dimensions and traditional knowledge into formal herring fisheries ecosystem assessments.
The OMF will be forming a working group focused on Pacific herring, and specifically on incorporating dimensions of human wellbeing and traditional knowledge into formal herring fisheries assessments. That working group will conduct the technical work of comparing multiple models and evaluating the effects of fisheries management rules on herring stocks and the herring social-ecological system. The Herring Working Group will meet in a series of workshops over 1-2 years.
The Pacific Herring Summit will convene modelers, technical experts, managers, First Nations and Tribes, and key stakeholders from the West Coast of North America (California to Alaska) to launch the OMF Herring Working Group, and to inform the OMF working group efforts. Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans is a collaborator in the Herring Summit, and the Summit’s major funders are the Pew Charitable Trusts and the David & Lucile Packard Foundation.
Key objectives of the Herring Summit are:
- develop a framework of the herring social-ecological system, including identifying nodes of ecological, social, cultural, economic and environmental connections to Pacific herring;
- identify the key social-ecological issues on the West Coast related to herring;
- direct the efforts of the Working Group over the next 1-2 years; and
- identify areas of uncertainty and knowledge gaps common among herring fisheries assessments Coast-wide.
Summit agenda can be found here: Herring Summit Agenda.
Questions about the Herring Summit can be directed to Tessa Francis, tessa<at>uw.edu.