I chose this thread to respond to what I have been noticing in all the threads on Halibut. It is not directed at any one person but to all who care about what is happening.
WOW! It has only taken one year to go from flat out saying "no way to having to buy quota", to more and more of you suggesting ways of making money so we can buy quota.
I will tell you with no hesitation this kind of thing really scares me and quite frankly pisses me off . I have read and reread all the threads on this. The more I read the more some of you ( NOT ALL) are sounding like nothing more than a group of people who make money from killing fish hell bent on getting more of the pie. Suggestions like killing only smaller fish so it takes longer to reach our TAC only suggests that you are willing to kill way more individual fish in order to have more time to sell more trips. As long you remain focused only on getting full seasons and maybe traditional limits back as well, we are destined to be doomed.
The guides and lodges have been stead fast in saying that "they are not a commercial sector. They are sports fisherman who facilitate the opportunity for other sport fisherman to get out and do what they love." I support that fully and that has not changed. What has changed is some of the focus by some of you and that change is not making you look very good. It scares me to think that maybe all this really is about to some of you is getting to be able to make more money.
Look folks I know that this will not be popular with some of you, and that is ok. I have been skirting around this for some time now out of respect for the fact that this does actually affect your livelihoods. I cannot in good faith and with that same respect sit and quietly ignore this anymore. I have hired two guides in my life. Both times I met tremendous people who sold me way more than the opportunity to catch a couple fish. I left each time with more knowledge and passion, the feeling that I had one more friend on the water and a greater respect for what it takes to do what you folks do.
It is with that respect in mind that I will appeal to you once more as another person on this forum did today. Quit looking for band-aid fixes that at the end of it all only equates to killing more fish. Re direct your focus back on getting changed that witch needs to be changed. DFO has given private ownership of the bulk of a Canadian public resource to a select few individuals. They have done this ahead of the needs of the majority of Canadians. The majority of this now privately owned resource is being exported, again ahead of the needs of Canadians. In affect DFO has ensured that millions of pounds of fish will get killed each year to benefit very few people. This policy puts yours and many others in BC,s coastal communities very livelihoods in jeopardy. And it puts the rest of us Canadians most fundamental right to access these fish at risk. We MUST find a way to put an end to ITQ fisheries before they find themselves imbedded in and steeling all other species. Once the fish are returned to the people, getting a proper and fairer allocation of those fish will come much easier and at far less a cost to the resource than anything we can patch together short term.
It is from my passion for the sport, and years of quietly watching the big money machine turn the screws and shorten the list of who benefits from the resource that I comment on these issues. It is my hope that my comments are taken as they are intended. They are observations from someone outside of the business end of things and meant to be constructive not judgmental.
Cheers: Ray
Ray,
I agree with most of your post. What you are really pointing to is a longer term solution, which I think we can all agree would be in all our best interest.
That said, we need to face the reality of what can be accomplished in the short time between now and when our Halibut season will end THIS SEASON. The facts are we will not be able to change the quota - that is set in stone. No amount of pounding our chests will change that in time to make any difference to THIS SEASON. To ignore this fact is to in effect stuff our heads in the sand and wait for DFO to tell us when we run out our allocation and order and end to our season. The end date is in all our hands. If we focus on
just the long term solutions, we throw away the opportunity to do something positive for
all anglers this season.
We really need to have two approaches. One aimed at this season, and a second aimed at solutions for coming seasons.
This season we have a quota of just over 1 million pounds. That's how it is measured...pounds of landed fish. Not numbers of fish, pounds. Once our limit of pounds quota is reached the season will end - there will not be
any exceptions as we have experienced in past years.
DFO has a model they follow to determine exactly when we reach that catch total. Think of it like a salary cap in the NHL. Once you exceed the cap you need to trade a player or in our case, stop fishing. The short term goal for all recreational fishers has to be to work together to find a way through utilizing existing fishing regulations to create an acceptable fishing experience for all anglers while slowing down the daily sport catch to a point where we can stretch out our finite allocation to get in a full season for all anglers. This isn't an us vs them; tin boat vs guide boat problem. We are all in this together. We all have control over the outcome.
If we work together we can find ways to create fishing opportunity and the reasonable expectation of catching a nice hali to keep everyone interested. So the trick is to work with DFO to use their sport catch model to spit out the best options that create a fishery that lasts through our usual season. We think that can be accomplished by getting the daily total pounds of fish caught down by having regulations such as a slot limit on the current 1 per day; 2 possession limit...or perhaps a 1 per day; 1 possession limit. This sort of approach would reduce the daily catch in pounds and allow us to stretch the days fished until we fish out our quota hopefully to the end of our season.
If we can do this sort of thing in the short term this season, we will be able to ensure there is fishing opportunity all season for all anglers. If we don't....the outcome is predictable when you look at the math behind the current quota and our daily catch rate coast wide.
Hopefully this helps explain the approach for THIS SEASON, and still leaves us to pursue other options for the future.
. 
