How many salt water rec licenses are there in B.C.

[spring fever]

Just curious-anyone know how many are sold each year? If the Tac for hali is roughly 8 million lbs I'm just interested how that breaks down per lic. I don't think it's much. Our portion of the TAC is roughly 1 million lbs divided among the number of lic for the rec sector- if we have 100000 lic- each lic is worth 10 lbs of halibut in the round-if there are fewer lic then each lic is worth more. If there are more lic. than that then our potion of the TAC is totally inadequate based on the no. of lic. sold. Just my rant for the morning!!

 

[spring fever]

Guess I will answer my own question -it was on the Fisheries website-the total no. of lic including non-resident was just short of 300000 lic for 2010/2011 so using that lic criteria every lic issued was worth 31/3 lbs of halibut in the round- no damn wonder we run out of TAC or am I just mathmatically challenged and missing something?

 

[Tips Up]

I've said it before and will say it again. Untill they come out with a halibut stamp and an annual limit per angler the DFO has no idea how many of these licensed anglers are targeting halibut or how many they "could have" caught.

Fishing license should look like a hunting license with a page for each species of concern, a stamp require for that page and an annual limit to be marked off on that page.

Pretty easy to add number of hali stamps sold x max number of fish they could catch on their annual limit = total possible catch.
Page for Chinook, page for lings...
If you are not going to fish for a species you don't need the stamp.

My opinion
Tips

 

[Clipper]

I've said it before and will say it again. Untill they come out with a halibut stamp and an annual limit per angler the DFO has no idea how many of these licensed anglers are targeting halibut or how many they "could have" caught.

Fishing license should look like a hunting license with a page for each species of concern, a stamp require for that page and an annual limit to be marked off on that page.

Pretty easy to add number of hali stamps sold x max number of fish they could catch on their annual limit = total possible catch.
Page for Chinook, page for lings...
If you are not going to fish for a species you don't need the stamp.

My opinion
Tips

Exactly what I've been thinking! I would fully support this approach.

 

[vetteman]

Exactly what I've been thinking! I would fully support this approach.

Sounds good until you think about it. With a TAC of about 900,000 pounds give or take a bit, there isn't enough quota to allow each liscenced fisher even one fish each.
300,000 licencees catching one halibut each at an average of 15 pounds comes to 4,500,000 pounds. Almost 5 times our annual TAC.
Dave

 

[lorneparker1]

It makes total sense, as those ther is only a portion of those 300k anglers that will fish hailibut. That is the problem is we(and the dfo) dont know how many of the 300k actually fish for halibut, and of those people that do how much they catch. having a stamp would solve that imo.

 

[Barnacle Bill]

Great points SF, wonder if DFO has thought of that? Only had one trip to WH this year and caught 1 hali, was to rough the other 2 days. So much for 1 a day. However using your stats my little chicken was/is a bit bigger, but not by much. ...........BB

 

[Charlie415]

It still doesn't really work. If you have a stamp fine but who's to say how many each licence with a tag actually catches? If any! Many licences would not purchase a tag unless they are planning on fishing in areas that normally have halibut. ECVI would not normally need a tag unless you are planning to target halibut. Creel counts are useless as you never know when they are present. Haven't seen one yet this year. Unless they had some form of reporting your catch and everyone actually complied then it is still going to be DFO voodoo as to what they would like us to believe the numbers are. I realise that the charters are in a unique position as they are looking to provide a fishing trip with as many options to lure customers as possible but personally as a rec angler my needs and wants are different. But I would still like the opportunity to fish hali's when I have the chance and on my schedule not risking a trip in suspect weather because of DFO closures looming.

 

[vetteman]

It makes total sense, as those ther is only a portion of those 300k anglers that will fish hailibut. That is the problem is we(and the dfo) dont know how many of the 300k actually fish for halibut, and of those people that do how much they catch. having a stamp would solve that imo.

According to most reports including that of the SFI, 100,000 of the liscencees fish for Halibut. Recording your catch is only effective if someone actually checks your data. I've never had my liscence checked for accuracy and definitley numbers were never recorded by anyone. In the case of halibut the actual number of fish caught is a moot point anyways as the the issue is weight and not numbers.
Dave

 

[Clipper]

In the case of halibut the actual number of fish caught is a moot point anyways as the the issue is weight and not numbers.
Dave

That's the sticker. The commercial catch is based on pounds while the rec catch is numbers based. You simply cannot control, monitor, limit a recreational fishery based on pounds of fish caught. What if you had to weigh each spring you kept and record the weight until you reached a 'quota' limit for you license? It just can't work that way for the rec sector.

A recreational fishery has to be based on numbers of fish retained, not weight. A license or tag system wherebye you account for the NUMBER of fish caught is the only sensible way to manage this type of fishery.

 

[GLG]

Screw all that fish count and weights, give us the season with 2 daily and four possession.
Open all year.
Put the commercial fleet on notice that these are our fish not theirs.
The Canadian TAC (less FN inc. for food only, no sales) is the peoples fish not some numbered company or a rich man fleet.
They can get what we don't use less 10% to grow the halibut population.
Perhaps another 10% off the top for being such greedy bastards and hammering the stocks.
We would not be in this position if the commercial would leave more big female fish to reproduce.
Black and white to me, I see the stocks go down and I know who is taking the vast majority of the fish.
It sure isn't the recreational sector with our token amount of fish.

Mad enough to spit nails.

GLG

 

[wolf]

I would say conservativly that out of the 300,000 lic sold maybe less than half fish halibut, all the guides in sooke doent even fish for them maybe the odd one but its mostly salmon when I worked in the lodge for 15 years I bet I spend maybe a dozen or so days over the summer looking for them as I was the only guide that would do it, even this past stint up north when i was there only a "few" guides went out for them.

Back when we had 2/3 limit we "apperenty" went over by 400,000 lbs give or take when it was 1.2 mil lbs and the season went the full distance.
NOW we are down to 1/2 so thats a reduction of 50% and they say we are still getting close to over the 900,000 lbs CMON plain and simple its VOOOOOODDDDDOOOOO math they are doing!!!!!!! they want joe canadian to "BUY" quota and make the commies happy bottom line cause no way are we even close to the TAC its all bull shiat....

Wolf

 

[onefish]

Be like the commercial guys and pay $10,000 for a camera to watch your every move, have the camera video watched at about $100 a day per day fished and then have a validator come and count each and every fish coming off the boat just to make sure you didn't poach one. Then with real numbers of the actual catch, for all finfish you might be able to make a case for something. In all likelyhood if DFO watched all the bycatch and shaker springs and coho being wasted they would already have the season shut down. As far as the hali question goes quit complaining, the rereational fishing fleet has already been gifted the west coast of Van Isle and the inner 1 mile of the Charlottes. Make the guides pay a bounty for all the Hali's they catch thereby buying quota for the recreational fisherman and let BC resident recreational fisherman have a license with a season stamp and allocation. All monies raised would go towards purchasing allocation. Or you could just do what most guys I know do, keep whatever they catch regardless of limits or season.

 

[FishBC.org]

Screw all that fish count and weights, give us the season with 2 daily and four possession.
Open all year.
Put the commercial fleet on notice that these are our fish not theirs.
The Canadian TAC (less FN inc. for food only, no sales) is the peoples fish not some numbered company or a rich man fleet.
They can get what we don't use less 10% to grow the halibut population.
Perhaps another 10% off the top for being such greedy bastards and hammering the stocks.
We would not be in this position if the commercial would leave more big female fish to reproduce.
Black and white to me, I see the stocks go down and I know who is taking the vast majority of the fish.
It sure isn't the recreational sector with our token amount of fish.

Mad enough to spit nails.

GLG

Exactly. Alot of us sporties release the big females.
Frankly if someone wants to eat halibut they should get off their asses and go catch it themselves rather than be able to buy it in grocery stores, and restaurants. If there's not enough fish in the sea due to poor practices by commercial fishermen, punish them, and not us. This is all about money, and it's ********. The tag system will never be put into play because then DFO can't screw everyone with the quota system, and everything about the GOVT we have in place is about squeezing every dollar they can from us somehow. Their quota system is a complete failure but I'm willing to bet that some people are secretly buying into it, in order to make money. The whole system is broken and it goes all the way back to the people managing it. People should have a right to fish for fish, for food. Seems the only sensible people in this whole mess are the sporties and we're the ones who take the brunt. Now I'm not saying that every sporty should be able to take many. Many guides / lodges over do it for profit too, but the average joe fisherman who just wants one or two for the freezer should not be dealing with this headache at all.

 

[spring fever]

One fish-I have no idea who you represent or what your agenda is -but I take great exception to the statement"Or you could just do what most guys I know do, keep whatever they catch regardless of limits or season". I don't know any sports anglers that do that and if I did I would turn them in!! If your'e trolling you caught me but otherwise Bull sh#t!

 

[Tips Up]

One Fish... No one here is going to support any system of buying back what is rightfully ours.
If a commie is not going to fish their gifted quota then they should put it back in the system for someone that will.
IMO The commies fishing their quota can have it till they decide not to fish it. If the quota that is being leased was put back in the system we could all catch fish and live in harmony.

Tips

 

[GLG]

Be like the commercial guys and pay $10,000 for a camera to watch your every move, have the camera video watched at about $100 a day per day fished and then have a validator come and count each and every fish coming off the boat just to make sure you didn't poach one.

No need for the recreational sector to get cameras because we were not the cheaters of the old system.
In the old days the commercials would offload their fish offshore, under the cover of darkness, to some packer boat.
They would then go and catch their quota again and do it all over again.
The commercials were forced to use cameras to stop this BS and now they claim it was their idea.
All for being sustainable and being "green".
Onefish I here by put you and your flunkeys on notice, I will do my part to shut you down.
Your time in the culture of entitlement is coming to an end.
Time to go back to school and learn a trade as you will be looking for real work soon.
None of this part time Halibut fisherman on my dime.

No halibut should be sold outside of Canada till all Canadians needs are meet.
GLG

 

[Fish-Hunter]

GLG you are absolutely correct!!!! There should be no Canadian caught Halibut sold outside of Canada until,,,, ALL Canadian needs have been met - pure and simple! The Canadian TAC is set each year for CANADA and the needs of Canadians, not for a select few commercial license holders (of which there are many that don't even live here, or fish the license) to sell out to other countries for their personal profit at the expense of the rest of Canada's access to a resource allocated to them as a whole country.

Another year has gone by and the f_-_ing DFO still has done nothing to fix the god damned problem (besides getting on their knees to assume the position to pleasure and keep the Commercial fleet happy). Yeah, now we got the stupid fawking halibut quota purchase program, what a great fawking idea that was! This commercial greed HAS GOT TO STOP!!!!!!!!!! - NOW!!!!!!!!! Shut the whole fugging thing down and start it over again from the ground up, whole new system with new rules, based on the fundamental premise that the needs of Canadian Citizens are met first and foremost!

As far as a tag system, I would fully support and agree with one. We need to attain accurate numbers for the number of licenses that are targeting Halibut and we do need to accurately and also have mandatory recording and reporting of our catch for conservation purposes to continue to work with IPHC and stay within our allocated TAC. Once we have one year under our belt on a tagged fishing season, we will then have real numbers to show how many of us intended to target Halibut and at the end of the season (or throughout the season - depending upon how the reporting is handled) we will have way more accurate numbers in regards to the Sporties pressure on the TAC. The key here is to make it mandatory 100% - absolutely no grey area at all, you have to record and report your catch, if you don't and you get caught, you loose your boat, truck, gear, all of it!!!! No fawking around at all, play by the rules or get nuked, not just burned! Once we have real numbers - THEN and only then can we determine how much of the TAC should the allocated to the Commercial sector for them to sell to the Canadian market so that this resource is available to Canadians that can't get out to the west coast to fish for them in person.

DFO has to go! DFO has to GO! DFO HAS TO GO!

I have to go, I can feel the blood pressure rising!

Cheers.

 

[GLG]

Read somewhere that 80% of the commercial caught Halibut is sold outside the country.
This has to stop because not all Canadians needs are being meet.
When the bean counters at DFO give us 2 per day and 4 poss. or 4 per day and 4 poss.
There will be no need for us to count, tag, weigh or keep track.
To tell the truth I care not what DFO has for a system as long as IPHC is OK with it.
Matter of fact IPHC is happy with the current system.
The true problem is the allocation, the commercial complain about the accounting as a smoke screen.
Personally I could care less what the commercial say or think as they raped the resouse and deserve nothing.
How many Halibut are caught in the Strait of Georgia every year?
A hand full maybe. There use to be millions of pounds out here, where did it go?
You bet, off to market and the money went into their pockets.
When the money was gone they came back to the government with their hand out and it was filled again.
The cycle went on and on for years.
Now we have the allocation and they don't go to the government for their money as often.
Kind of like a free-loader system where the money comes and you don't have to work much.
This must stop now as I am so tired of them screwing me and my family.
Will do what I can to change things even if it feels like I'm banging my head against a wall.

Not one pound of Halibut should be sold outside Canada until all Canadians needs are meet.

GLG

 

[fish4all]

Guess I will answer my own question -it was on the Fisheries website-the total no. of lic including non-resident was just short of 300000 lic for 2010/2011 so using that lic criteria every lic issued was worth 31/3 lbs of halibut in the round- no damn wonder we run out of TAC or am I just mathmatically challenged and missing something?

I spoke with dfo a while back. They said that a good number are repeat buyers. That is people that buy a 2 day licnese and then buy another one. Perhaps a better question would be how many individual participants are there.

Here we go again on the same merry go round as last year. If you are going to try and make change without first cleaning up the recreational fishery I would say get ready for an even shorter season. We are all well aware of abuses that go on in our fisheries by all different participants. The differece here is the commercial guys have made a tremendous effort to clean there fishery up and the recreational and commercial recreational side has done....nothing.

How about you even start by makng it mandatory that a rec license be turned in at the end of the season or you do not qualify the next year for a sports license, a good earlier post that said at least have all species recorded on a license ... time to get with the times.