double trouble
Member
I know the commercial guys left some in the water this year but usually it's more than that. I believe they fished as tiight as they could to the limit because they did not want to lose uncaught fish to the public fishery. They knew what was happening in the rec sector and it didn't take Einstein to figure out how to make it work to the commercial fisheries advantage. If my memory serves me right they can carry over the uncaught fish to the following year minus 10%, so traditionally if they left a few hundred thousand pounds in the water at the end of the season it was more of a marketing decision around price and supply rather than fishing to the last pound on the quota.
Anyways you bring up a good point in regards to safety. If the public halibut fishery closes mid-season this year as forecast I wonder if, as time ticks down, some people will make poor decisions around the weather to get their fish before the closing date. Much like the old derby style commercial halibut fishery. I think that is another reason why Minister Thibeault's original announcement needs to be revisited, he promised no in-season closure so that's the way it should be. The problem DFO has is they cherry picked what fit their tastes from the original announcement and ignored the rest. They've had 7 years to figure out a "market based mechanism" and haven't been able to come through on that either. It's high time they corrected the flaws in the original policy. They can find money to buy commercial TAC for our native friends but not for the taxpayers that keep the whole system going. I say buy the TAC, use it in the rec sector, and in years of higher TAC than what we can use lease it back to the commercial fishery. That way DFO will recover the investment.
Anyways you bring up a good point in regards to safety. If the public halibut fishery closes mid-season this year as forecast I wonder if, as time ticks down, some people will make poor decisions around the weather to get their fish before the closing date. Much like the old derby style commercial halibut fishery. I think that is another reason why Minister Thibeault's original announcement needs to be revisited, he promised no in-season closure so that's the way it should be. The problem DFO has is they cherry picked what fit their tastes from the original announcement and ignored the rest. They've had 7 years to figure out a "market based mechanism" and haven't been able to come through on that either. It's high time they corrected the flaws in the original policy. They can find money to buy commercial TAC for our native friends but not for the taxpayers that keep the whole system going. I say buy the TAC, use it in the rec sector, and in years of higher TAC than what we can use lease it back to the commercial fishery. That way DFO will recover the investment.