Livewell pump (saltwater) is illegal in BC?

yanghai45

New Member
I just talked to my dealer's manager, she said that they can not install a livewell pump because it is illegal here in BC. I knew freshwater you can not use live bait.
 
I love fishing live bait, anyone have any luck hooking a herring in the face and sending it down?
 
I believe the concern with putting target species, like say a salmon in a live well, is it opens the fisher to being suspected of High grading. And as i believe the rules state that any fish not being retained is to be immediately released in the least most harmful way. And the sea is certainly a better environment than a small fiberglass tank in our deck.

Having said that i believe commercial gillnetters have to have functioning revival tanks on deck to revive non retainable species prior to be put back in the sea. (so the seal don't get free meals) but that is not a high grading scenario as the fish in those tanks must eventually be thrown over board.
 
There is no law against having a livewell. There are certain species designated as "baitfish" under the Fisheries Act. Herring is the main one. Small Rockfish and Greenling are not...
Highgrading is illegal. You cant keep caught fish alive and "release" them as you catch bigger ones.
Commercial vessels have "revival" tanks on board as a condition of licence..
This is NOT a route I would like to see for sportsfishing. Any fish in your "livewell" would count towards your limit and be considered to be in your possession. ie: dont put a wild coho in there to "revive" it.

Just my 2 cents and NOT legal advice

CR Greg
 
Down here, law enforcement would consider a fish in your bait tank as retained at that point.

How do y’all keep live bait on a barbless hook?
 
Can't find any regulation on the posted 'regular guy' regulations synopsis against keeping retained fish alive as long as they are within your limit a and in season. Keeping rockfish live is a big deal to some cultures. Unfortunately, only those in the profession know the fisheries act, or would fully understand the legal legal.
 
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