West Coast of Vancouver Island

Effort and resulting landings in the demersal fishery built slowly to the 1960s, were maximum but highly variable through the 70s, and have been maintained at moderate levels since the early 80s by active management regulations. Pelagic fisheries landings show a roughly similar pattern, but were almost double demersal landings and peak landings occurred in the early 90s. Landings tend to be dominated by low frequency oscillations of cool and warm water taxa; warm water taxa include Pacific sardine in the early years and Pacific hake in the latter years. Pacific herring are a major component through the time series. Recent (1996 onwards) indicator trends reflect the active management for groundfish and effects of recent warm water conditions which have favoured highly-migratory species such as Pacific hake and sardines.