Trawl Monitoring

Trawl Monitoring

CHN’s Opposition of Trawl Fishery

In 2020, CHN President Gaagwiis signed a public letter expressing Haida opposition of the trawl fishery. The Haida Nation remains opposed to and very concerned about the trawl fishery operating on a large scale in Haida waters – especially with non-selective gear, removing species at an industrial scale without any community benefits, fishing too close to shore, and interfering with traditional harvest opportunities and impacting the sustainability of stocks and habitats. The CHN represents Haida interests and continues to prioritize this issue and remain in strong opposition to the trawl fishery.  

On March 14, 2025, a letter was sent out to the trawl industry about the Nation’s continued opposition to the trawl fishery in Haida waters.

Haida Citizens Concerns

Concerns among Haida citizens regarding the sustainability of trawling fisheries had been brought forward through HOA resolutions since mid-1990s. This includes resolutions to monitor the trawl fisheries in Haida Gwaii waters to determine its impacts, and to prevent erosion of Haida fisheries by protecting and conserving the fish and marine habitats in our waters. In 1997-1998 Haida concerns regarding trawling in G̲adsguusd Siigée McIntyre Bay, X̲aana K̲aahlii Skidegate Inlet and Gwaaygiids K̲aahlii Cartwright Sound resulted in the closure of G̲adsguusd Siigée to ground fish trawl, X̲aana K̲aahlii to trawl and hook and line for halibut and rockfish, and Gwaaygiids K̲aahlii for hook and line for halibut and rockfish.

Since 2013, with the introduction of factory trawlers in the northwest, those concerns had intensified. Factory trawlers are capable of catching more fish, more quickly and can stay at sea longer than other vessels, since they can process and freeze as much as a million or more pounds of fish onboard, which brings more ecological impacts and even less benefits to our communities.

At the HOA in October 2024, Haida citizens brought forward and approved resolution 2024-06 Elimination of trawling in Haida Gwaii Waters. This resolution gives guidance to CHN to continue making it a priority to negotiate with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to eliminate all trawl fisheries on Haida Gwaii.

Ongoing Work

CHN has a Marine Shipping Analyst, Gid’yaak’ii Stephen Hans, that creates real-time reports of trawling activity and has set up “geofences” throughout our territory. This “geofence” provides alerts to CHN when vessels over a certain size go over the defined boundary. These reports help CHN measure the level and type of activity in Haida waters. CHN tracks a total of 53 vessels and gets notifications of when they leave port.

Since 2019, CHN’s Marine Planning Program has requested data on trawl catch to better inform our understanding of the impacts of the fishery. CHN sits on a number of committees, including the Joint Halibut and Groundfish Technical Committee with DFO, to work on these issues. Many avenues have been explored for more information, from DFO management and science presentations, communications with industry, in-depth and habitat-specific data requests, Tier 2 requests for IFMP updates through CHN-DFO (Tier 2) processes, discussions on Haida at-sea observers, and CHN participation on the Groundfish Bottom Trawl Survey.

A large data request was sent to DFO between October 2021 and November 2022, but due to privacy rule policies, they were unable to provide the level of detail or spatial scale that was necessary to determine unhealthy trends. In November 2022, CHN instead requested the Habitat Conservation Review Committee be reinstated and enhanced to provide detailed annual reports, which would provide significant information for CHN to assess impacts of bottom and midwater trawl.

Recent Trawl Activity in Haida Waters

Freeport

  • On March 9, 2025, Freeport left Prince Rupert.
  • On March 10, 2025, Freeport entered Dixon Entrance / McIntyre Bay and had 5.5 hours of potential fishing.
  • On March 10, 2025, Freeport slowed down to 0-1 knot for 10 hours possibly being a “likely anchorage” near Langara Island.
  • On March 11, 2025, Freeport has potential 14 hours of fishing on the west coast of Haida Gwaii.
  • On March 12, 2025, Freeport has potential 6.5 hours of fishing on the east coast northern Hecate Strait.
  • On March 13, 2025, Freeport arrived back to its home port in Lax Kw’alaams.
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  • On March 1, 2025, Freeport left Lax Kw’alaams.
  • On March 2, 2025, Freeport entered the Dixon Entrance / McIntyre Bay area and west coast of Haida Gwaii.
  • Between March 2-3, 2025, Freeport has 19 hours of potential fishing on in the Dixon Entrance / McIntyre Bay and west coast of Haida Gwaii.

Pacific Legacy

  • On February 7, 2025, Pacific Legacy left its home port in Port Hardy.
  • On February 8, 2025, Pacific Legacy entered the Queen Charlotte Sound area.
  • Between February 8 to February 10, the Pacific Legacy turned off their AIS transponder making them undetectable to the EMSA system.
  • On February 10, 2025, Pacific Legacy was found to be in Gawya Skidegate Channel.

This track concerned CHN and local citizens of the potential of them trawling in the channel. This area is an important spot for traditional and recreational harvesting for many and known for it’s ecological richness. CHN received reports that the vessel had to travel through the narrows to met up with the Coast Guard to get an injured crew member to the hospital, and was able to confirm that Coast Guard Cape Mudge met up with Pacific Legacy on February 10 with them leaving K’il Kun Sandspit at 9:14pm and arriving at the Pacific Legacy at 10:58pm just off of Naw K’yalG̲a Demariscove Point.

  • On February 11, 2025, Pacific Legacy continued moving up the west coast of Haida Gwaii. In total there is a potential of 6 days of fishing activity.

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  • On January 25, 2025, Pacific Legacy left Ucluelet.
  • On January 26, 2025, Pacific Legacy started potentially fishing off the West Coast of SG̲ang Gwaay.
  • Between January 27 to February 1, 2025, Pacific Legacy had 7 potential fishing days near Cape St James.

Nordic Pearl

  • From January 21 to 30, 2025, Nordic Pearl made 3 trips with a potential of 3 days of fishing activities.

Pacific Viking

  • Between January 22-27 and January 29-30, 2025, Pacific Viking has 6 potential days of fishing activity.

Royal Pride

  • On January 22, 2025, Royal Tide left its home port of Prince Rupert.
  • Between January 23-24, 2025, Royal Tide has one potential day of fishing on the west coast of Haida Gwaii.

Viking Tide

  • On January 8, 2025, Viking Tide left its home port in Port Hardy.
  • Between January 8 to 12, 2025, Viking Tide turned off their AIS transponder making them undetectable to the EMSA system.
  • On January 12, Viking Tide appeared on AIS again on the west coast of Haida Gwaii.
  • Between January 12-17, and January 19-31 there was a total potential of 12 days of fishing activity.

FAQ About Trawl

What’s the difference between wet deck and freezer trawl vessels? 

Both wet deck and freezer trawlers are active in Haida territory. Wet deck trawlers do not process fish onboard. Fish are brought to onshore processing plants where fish are processed and packaged for distribution, supporting local businesses and livelihoods in these areas. Freezer trawlers have the ability to process and freeze fish on factory decks onboard while at sea (that is why they are often referred to as factory trawlers). Catches from these vessels often do not require processing at onshore plants, with the frozen blocks of fish offloaded from the vessel and directly distributed (often exported internationally), and therefore provide less benefits to local businesses and livelihoods than wet deck trawlers do. Freezer trawlers are not permitted to process fish at sea beyond what is permitted for other fisheries in BC. They can remove fish heads, tails and guts, and freeze at sea but they cannot cut the fish into pieces. This is consistent with other regulations for other fisheries such as halibut and salmon. Freezer trawl vessels are typically much larger than wet deck trawl vessels.

What’s the difference between bottom-trawl and midwater-trawl?

Bottom-trawl has gear that touches the ocean bottom, and catches species like Pacific cod, flatfishes including Arrowtooth Flounder (also known as Turbot), rockfish, thornyheads, lingcod, sablefish, dogfish and skate. The bycatch of sponges and corals are more common, although the trawl boundary avoids these areas, they are still caught alongside many fish species, such as halibut and species of rockfish.

Midwater-trawl catches species like Pacific Hake pollock. Bycatch of salmon, particularly Chinook, is more common in mid water trawl. There have also been reports of krill, eulachon and herring being caught.

What is bycatch?

Industry defines ‘Bycatch’ as the incidental capture of non-target species. What this essentially means is that a staggering amount of marine life is hauled up with each “catch”, and then discarded overboard dead or dying.  This is contrary to Haida practices and offends our Haida Ways of Being.  Thousands of miles of nets and lines are set in the world’s oceans each day. Modern fishing gear, often undetectable by sight and extremely strong, is very efficient at catching the desired fish species—as well as anything else in its path.

What type of data do we have on bycatch?

Industry has provided CHN with data on bycatch from some vessels trawling in Haida territory over the past two years. Rockfish and sablefish have accounted for the largest bycatch, along with halibut, flounder, lingcod and salmon. With the midwater trawl the halibut bycatch is retained, and for bottom trawl, halibut weight is assessed based on length, then an assessment factor is applied, and by-catch is accounted for as quota. Bottom trawl can retain all catch, except for prohibited species like halibut, salmon, eulachon, and SARA-listed species (i.e. some rockfish species). Salmon cannot be retained, but bycatch does occur in the mid-water hake fishery.

What are the environmental and ecosystem impacts of the trawl fishery?

Trawl fisheries have a range of impacts. These include damaging sensitive seafloor habitats such as cold-water coral and sponge reefs, high levels of bycatch including salmon, halibut and lingcod, and removing large quantities of fish from a given area in a short time.

What are the current monitoring requirements for the trawl fishery?  

Prior to COVID-19, at-sea observers were placed on trawl vessels to ensure catch and by-catch were accurately reported. This is now done by electronic cameras, and the footage is validated by Archipelago Marine Research, a private environmental consultancy that undertakes fisheries monitoring work coast-wide, and Vericatch, a fishing software and technology company. In response to the desire to have Haida observers on board trawl vessels, CHN Marine Biologist/Planner Skil Jáada Vanessa Zahner and Haida citizen Geoffrey Martynuik participated in the Synoptic Groundfish Bottom Trawl Survey in 2022, which conducts sampling to inform fishery openings. Skil Jáada’s account of her experience can be read in the October 2023 Salt Water News distributed around Haida Gwaii, and an upcoming issue of Haida Laas. Haida at-sea observers continue to be explored by CHN. 

Video + Photos of Trawl Impacts