BELLA BELLA, B.C.- A British Columbia First Nation says it has launched a civil lawsuit against the federal government over its decision in 2022 to ban one of its commercial fisheries The Heiltsuk Nation says the Fisheries Department’s move to close the commercial harvest of herring spawn-on-kelp in the nation’s territory was an infringement of its Aboriginal rights. In a lawsuit filed in B.C. Supreme Court against the Attorney General of Canada, the nation says the department issued a management plan for Pacific herring in February 2022 for the central coast that closed the commercial fishery, where eggs are removed from kelp after herring have spawned. The lawsuit says the closure left its members unable to harvest the spawn-on-kelp for commercial purposes, disrupting “an economic lifeline” for the Indigenous community…
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