A $32-million commercial fishery has inexplicably and completely collapsed this year on the B.C. coast.
The sardine seine fleet has gone home after failing to catch a single fish. And the commercial disappearance of the small schooling fish is having repercussions all the way up the food chain to threatened humpback whales.
Overfishing had long been blamed for the disappearance of sardines from B.C. waters. But scientists today attribute the overriding cause to changes in ocean conditions that proved unfavourable to sardines.
They disappeared entirely with no evidence at all. Jim Darling, a Tofino-based whale biologist with the Pacific Wildlife Foundation, said in an interview Monday that humpbacks typically number in the hundreds near the west coast of Vancouver Island in summer.
Humpbacks were observed only sporadically this year, including by the commercial whale watching industry.
Darling said society should question whether the greater value of sardines is as prey for natural predators in the ocean, including the humpbacks upon which the whale-watching industry depends so heavily.
"Would it not make sense to leave the fish that are driving the whole system and supporting virtually everything? There are some important questions to be asked about the sardine fishery".
Read more - http://www.vancouversun.com/travel/Sardine+fishery+collapse+affects+economy+ecology/9036436/story.html
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