Sushihunter
Active Member
http://www.bclocalnews.com/vancouver_island_north/comoxvalleyrecord/opinion/letters/41182279.html
Halibut allocation ‘theft’
Published: March 12, 2009 6:00 PM
Dear editor,
First off, I would like to congratulate the Comox Valley Record for publishing the two letters to the editor submitted regarding halibut, herring and seals, all of which are serious issues facing the economy on Vancouver Island.
North Island MP John Duncan fully supports the ridiculous, unworkable and unconstitutional gift of 88 per cent of the coast-wide halibut quota handed to the commercial sector some years ago.
Despite the massive negative effect on the whole of Vancouver Island’s and, for that matter, the entire west coast of B.C.’s economy, Mr. Duncan flatly refuses to believe that this Halibut Allocation Framework, especially in these tough economic times, impacts those who live in his riding.
The multi-billion-dollar-a-year sports fishing industry supports thousands of Vancouver Island residents and businesses, and also brings in many times the dollars of the entire commercial sector. Time and time again this valuable economic driver has taken the back seat to commercial fishing interests.
The current halibut situation is nothing short of a theft of a common public resource given to a few hundred licence holders who, for the most part, lease out these valuable commodities, never setting foot on a fishing vessel.
Mr. Duncan’s unwavering support of the commercial fishing sector (as well as fish farming) should be called into question.
The annual commercial herring roe fishery is about to take place right in our own back yard, and with the herring stocks dwindling to near-collapse, and DFO supporting another Jimmy Pattison-controlled commercial fishery, when will the public finally speak up to end the foolish harvest?
This valuable resource was fished last year with two years’ worth of herring roe still sitting in Vancouver waiting to be sold. It would be nice to find out what Mr. Pattison received for his low-quality, undersized herring roe and what it was actually used for.
Net sizes have been reduced year after year to catch what is left, mainly two-year-old herring. Long gone are all other age classes of herring (up to 12-year-old). Harvesting the roe from these tiny two-year-old herring at eight-to-10-per-cent egg mass instead of the recommended or industry standard of 14 per cent is nothing short of mindless.
This fishery is run out of our local Comox DFO office. Anyone who spends any time on the water trying to catch a salmon, or wonders why our salmon stocks, both local and those migrating through our waters, are at historically low levels needs to look no further afield than what will happen over the next few weeks right under our noses.
Tom Downton,
Courtenay
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