fishingbc
Active Member
Small West Coast Community Fears Consequences of Recent Halibut Quota Decision by DFO
Bamfield, B.C., Feb 17, 2011 – Tuesday’s news from Ottawa re-enforcing the current 88/12 split of the Total Allowable Catch of B.C.’s halibut has left residents and small business owners in the Village of Bamfield reeling.
“This ruling speaks to how truly disconnected policy makers in Ottawa are from the regional issues they preside upon.” Said Bamfield Chamber of Commerce president Pat Byers. “To give 88% of a public resource to only 436 license holders is ludicrious.”
In 2003 DFO allocated 88% of Canada’s Total Allowable Catch to 436 commercial quota holders and allocated 12% to the province’s 100,000 recreational halibut anglers. Recreational anglers have consistently opposed the policy and argued that the move amounts to the privatization of Canada’s common-property halibut resource.
In addition, recreational anglers have faced shortened seasons and a 50% reduction in catch limits despite a commitment during that proccess to the contrary.
“This is not a conservation issue, this is a money grab. In small coastal communities like mine, tourism - most of which revolves around recreational fishing - has become the primary industry, springing up in the wake of the now defunct salmon trolling fleet. We have a season that runs from June until September and this allocation threatens that” remarked Byers.
Bamfield began as an outpost for fur trading and a fishing community in the late 1800s. Shortly thereafter the Pacific Cable Board chose Bamfield as the Eastern terminus for their trans-Pacific cable. An enormous commercial salmon fishing fleet was based in Bamfield up to the mid-1980s. Bamfield is now home to several sport fishing lodges, which pursue primarily salmon and halibut.
Brian McKay, lifetime village resident, retired Coast Guard worker and fishing lodge owner is angry with the decision. “I’ve watched this town shift from a commercial fishing community into a sportfishing community. We used to have 45 commercial trolling licences and now there are two. It seemed that the more sustainable fishery was the recreational side so that’s what Bamfield steered toward. Where does that leave us now?”
“On either coast, our communities have always been subject to ebbs and flows of prosperity, unfortunately, all to often linked to the political agendas of those in Ottawa” states Byers. “It is time too review this centralized system as a whole.”
Contact:
Pat Byers, President
Bamfield Chamber of Commerce
250-728-3351
