Have you seen this article by Bill Otway? I am sorry to be a bearer of bad tidings but just read this from the BC Outdoors Fall 2009 Issue. I hope you get outraged enough to write some letters.
I am heading down to a meeting in Seattle to do battle with our own NOAA on a San Juan Island closure. Here is the article.I am sick and tired of our and your government giving our fish away.
Government Moves to Privatize More of the Public Fishery by Bill Otway
Remember halibut and the problems our fishery has faced over the last two years because the Conservative Government continues to support the privatization of the public fishery through Individual Transferable Quotas (ITQs) in the commercial fishery? Well in this past year that same government, through Fisheries and Ocean Canada, has embarked on a major expansion of this system.
They have now instituted the Commercial Groundfish Integrated Fishing Plan. This plan covers the pacific ground-fish stocks, flounder, Yelloweye and other rockfish, Lingcod etc. The new plan will give ownership of those fish stocks to the commercial sector in perpetuity.
As with halibut, the Conservative Government is now mandating that no changes in allocation for groundfish stocks can take place except through "market trans-actions between willing buyers and willing sellers." Our Supreme Court has repeatedly made it clear that there is no competent legislation to allow the government to dispose of the public resource in this manner, yet our government continues to press forward with their illegal actions. In the end taxpayers now and in the future will be the losers. Taxpayers lose because our government is giving over ownership of this resource to the commercial fishery for no charge— it is a free gift. This is the same manner in which the Halibut fishermen received their quotas.
Now comes the second part of our loss. In order to maintain a viable recreational halibut fishery for the next three or four years, under the current system, we as Canadian taxpayers would have to pay commercial Halibut fishers in the order of S25 million. In the future you can add groundfish to this bill, and now also Salmon. That is right I said salmon. The government has privatized our Chinook salmon in the Northern Troll fishery. In 2009 this "ITQ," program is being moved into the Sockeye fishery with a vengeance. Our Federal government is pushing every commercial gear type to get into the quota program for the Sockeye fishery and to date both the Seine fleet and the Inside Troll fleet has joined in. In light of this, our government is now giving serious consideration to moving the Seine fleet into the Fraser River to harvest not just their Sockeye allocation, but that of the trailers as well. You see our government now takes the position that these quotas are freely transferable from one gear type to the other. So now the government is giving ownership of our public fish resource to people who don't even have to go fishing to reap the benefits.
Not only that, the system allows you to go over your assigned quota as long as you arrange to obtain the amount of overage
from another quota holder within a set number of days from the time you land your fish.
To bring this into the recreational context, if we received the same consideration as the commercial fleet, you could go ahead and catch over your limit on any trip as long as you could get some other angler to give you those fish off his licence after your trip. Insane right? Well not if you are the Conservative Government of Canada dealing with the commercial fishery.
One ray of hope on the horizon is the fact that the B.C. Wildlife Federation is actively pursuing a course of legal action in an attempt to get our rights back. They could use your support. Donations to their Legal Defense Fund are tax deductible.
I am heading down to a meeting in Seattle to do battle with our own NOAA on a San Juan Island closure. Here is the article.I am sick and tired of our and your government giving our fish away.
Government Moves to Privatize More of the Public Fishery by Bill Otway
Remember halibut and the problems our fishery has faced over the last two years because the Conservative Government continues to support the privatization of the public fishery through Individual Transferable Quotas (ITQs) in the commercial fishery? Well in this past year that same government, through Fisheries and Ocean Canada, has embarked on a major expansion of this system.
They have now instituted the Commercial Groundfish Integrated Fishing Plan. This plan covers the pacific ground-fish stocks, flounder, Yelloweye and other rockfish, Lingcod etc. The new plan will give ownership of those fish stocks to the commercial sector in perpetuity.
As with halibut, the Conservative Government is now mandating that no changes in allocation for groundfish stocks can take place except through "market trans-actions between willing buyers and willing sellers." Our Supreme Court has repeatedly made it clear that there is no competent legislation to allow the government to dispose of the public resource in this manner, yet our government continues to press forward with their illegal actions. In the end taxpayers now and in the future will be the losers. Taxpayers lose because our government is giving over ownership of this resource to the commercial fishery for no charge— it is a free gift. This is the same manner in which the Halibut fishermen received their quotas.
Now comes the second part of our loss. In order to maintain a viable recreational halibut fishery for the next three or four years, under the current system, we as Canadian taxpayers would have to pay commercial Halibut fishers in the order of S25 million. In the future you can add groundfish to this bill, and now also Salmon. That is right I said salmon. The government has privatized our Chinook salmon in the Northern Troll fishery. In 2009 this "ITQ," program is being moved into the Sockeye fishery with a vengeance. Our Federal government is pushing every commercial gear type to get into the quota program for the Sockeye fishery and to date both the Seine fleet and the Inside Troll fleet has joined in. In light of this, our government is now giving serious consideration to moving the Seine fleet into the Fraser River to harvest not just their Sockeye allocation, but that of the trailers as well. You see our government now takes the position that these quotas are freely transferable from one gear type to the other. So now the government is giving ownership of our public fish resource to people who don't even have to go fishing to reap the benefits.
Not only that, the system allows you to go over your assigned quota as long as you arrange to obtain the amount of overage
from another quota holder within a set number of days from the time you land your fish.
To bring this into the recreational context, if we received the same consideration as the commercial fleet, you could go ahead and catch over your limit on any trip as long as you could get some other angler to give you those fish off his licence after your trip. Insane right? Well not if you are the Conservative Government of Canada dealing with the commercial fishery.
One ray of hope on the horizon is the fact that the B.C. Wildlife Federation is actively pursuing a course of legal action in an attempt to get our rights back. They could use your support. Donations to their Legal Defense Fund are tax deductible.
