WEBVTT 00:00:03.254 --> 00:00:20.740 [Barbara Wilson]:I think that the Hakai herring program that's happening right now is an excellent place for all First Nations to have some valuable input into the types of things we would like to see happen along the coast. 00:00:21.293 --> 00:00:27.044 [Edwin Newman]:Yes, I was very pleased with the process that we went through here in the last three days. 00:00:27.104 --> 00:00:36.322 [Edwin Newman]:It's important that we come together and try to deal with it collectively, because it needs all of us together to make something work. 00:00:37.504 --> 00:00:44.297 [Edwin Newman]:Even the Department of Fisheries and Oceans has to sit down and listen to what the people are really concerned about. 00:00:44.277 --> 00:00:56.856 [Edwin Newman]:but too often they don't pay attention and we've got to make sure that we keep pushing, continue to push hard as we can to make the positive changes that we want to see in the herring fishery. 00:00:58.258 --> 00:01:10.977 [Gary Vigers]:This herring school workshop was very valuable and important because it's, I believe, one of the first times that such a forum has been convened where 00:01:11.311 --> 00:01:29.550 [Gary Vigers]:all of these parties could get together in a non-confrontational situation and not discussing detailed management plans, exchanging ideas, discussing issues underlying the whole management and structure of the fisheries. 00:01:30.231 --> 00:01:41.082 [Gary Vigers]:I think, as a result, there was a lot of improvement in the communications between, not only between the First Nations and Department of Fisheries and Oceans, 00:01:41.247 --> 00:01:46.476 [Gary Vigers]:but also a lot of improved relationships between the First Nations people themselves. 00:01:46.556 --> 00:01:49.020 [Gary Vigers]:They didn't realize that they were all having the same problem. 00:01:49.080 --> 00:02:03.745 [Brian Hunt]:It's been an amazing gathering and we're hearing, I've learned an incredible amount about herring and it's certainly been a fish that's underrepresented in the media and as it turns out in the scientific research as well. 00:02:04.282 --> 00:02:06.005 [Brian Hunt]:There have been a lot of issues with management. 00:02:06.405 --> 00:02:12.455 [Brian Hunt]:It's a contentious species because it's, as I've learned, it's an incredibly important fish for First Nations communities. 00:02:13.436 --> 00:02:25.736 [Brian Hunt]:It has also been an important fishery over time, but it has suffered tremendously from various causes, one of which of those is industrial fishing, but the other potential impacts have been climate change. 00:02:26.357 --> 00:02:31.605 [Brian Hunt]:And these questions about what is driving herring communities has been one of the 00:02:31.906 --> 00:02:34.990 [Brian Hunt]:emerging themes of this workshop. 00:02:35.991 --> 00:02:45.482 [Brian Hunt]:We have a number of questions about what has happened to herring and how we are going to develop strategies to resurrect the herring population on the coast of British Columbia. 00:02:45.743 --> 00:02:54.934 [Dana Lepofsky]:So it's hard for me to believe that the Herring School has really only been a school, has had a name for, gosh, I guess a year. 00:02:56.736 --> 00:03:01.862 [Dana Lepofsky]:And in that time, this school has grown in numbers, in breadth, in depth. 00:03:02.298 --> 00:03:06.464 [Dana Lepofsky]:And that's really because of the passion that people have up and down the coast around herring. 00:03:06.544 --> 00:03:08.888 [Dana Lepofsky]:People want to have a voice about herring. 00:03:09.368 --> 00:03:11.311 [Dana Lepofsky]:They want to do good science around herring. 00:03:12.192 --> 00:03:14.336 [Dana Lepofsky]:So we have one year behind us. 00:03:14.856 --> 00:03:16.419 [Dana Lepofsky]:We've had some initial field work. 00:03:16.859 --> 00:03:18.401 [Dana Lepofsky]:We've compiled a lot of data. 00:03:18.682 --> 00:03:20.204 [Dana Lepofsky]:And we've compiled a lot of people. 00:03:20.665 --> 00:03:30.499 [Dana Lepofsky]:My hope and my belief is at the end of this three-day workshop, when we have all the teachers in the school, teachers and students in the school coming together, 00:03:30.935 --> 00:03:42.463 [Dana Lepofsky]:that will be poised and ready to just dive in to moving forward to getting the word out about herring and doing the very best science possible around herring.