MILLERTIME
Member
Halibut horribilus for the rest of us
1 Sep 2011Times ColonistD.C. REID
“Commercial halibut is considered one of the best managed fisheries in the world.” says the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. That earthquake shaking is 300,000 saltwater sport fishers falling off their chairs. OK, now get up off the floor. Yes, this is the same program you have learned to “dislike.” The public still gets only 12 per cent of its own halibut and the commercial sector still gets 88 per cent of our halibut.
In comparison, 100,000 sport licences take halibut and only 435 commercial, though only 157 boats actually fish. So 1.6 per cent of the fishers catch 88 per cent of our fish. Because DFO couldn’t find any better management method of effecting its faulty “market mechanism” concept, it issued an extra licence, 436. This year sport fishers were allowed to buy fish, er, lease, not buy quota, provided we could find a commercial guy on our way out. Then dicker over the price, stash some cash in his/her pocket, and with some sort of legal evidence go out and catch a halibut.
That has not worked well. The reduced 7.5million-pound total allowable catch, was split so sport guys got about 900,000 pounds as the next management action. Then the next was the public could catch one halibut per day and two in total possession. In the past this has been two/three, and is where we should be now.
The next management action, Aug. 26, tells the sport sector our season is over on Sept. 5. This will likely mean, for the first time ever, our fishery is closed as long as it is open — but not commercial guys who can still catch another two milion pounds. This causes a big problem for sport resorts, not to mention us, who have to phone thousands of clients and tell them about this last minute change, asking whether they still want to come. Would you?
Here is what Robert Alcock, president of the Sport Fish Institute has to say: “This closure will not conserve halibut or increase employment in coastal communities. In fact, it will ensure that Canadian taxpayers will receive less value for their halibut resource. Recreational anglers who want to catch one or two of the fish that they own as Canadians should be outraged at this high-handed decision.”
Alcock also said: “By forcing an unnecessary closure to the recreational halibut fishery… DFO has demonstrated that it is beholden to the commercial halibut lobby and indifferent to the economic impacts on residents of coastal communities. DFO will have to explain to the hundreds of workers in the sport fishing industry who will be affected by this decision why their continued employment is of little importance.”
Stephen Harper said in Campbell River in May during the election that Conservative candidates were not allowed to speak about saltwater fishing and that DFO would have a solution for 2012. The downside is that the damage will have been done. The last time such a late closure was introduced — 1995 for Chinook — the sport lodge trade did not recover for five years. Here are two management strategies that will work: allow sport anglers the traditional two/three, with any overage taken out of the commercial side. Alternatively, DFO should buy 10 per cent of commercial quota and give it to the people of B.C. That management action would solve the allocation issue for the rest of this century.
1 Sep 2011Times ColonistD.C. REID
“Commercial halibut is considered one of the best managed fisheries in the world.” says the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. That earthquake shaking is 300,000 saltwater sport fishers falling off their chairs. OK, now get up off the floor. Yes, this is the same program you have learned to “dislike.” The public still gets only 12 per cent of its own halibut and the commercial sector still gets 88 per cent of our halibut.
In comparison, 100,000 sport licences take halibut and only 435 commercial, though only 157 boats actually fish. So 1.6 per cent of the fishers catch 88 per cent of our fish. Because DFO couldn’t find any better management method of effecting its faulty “market mechanism” concept, it issued an extra licence, 436. This year sport fishers were allowed to buy fish, er, lease, not buy quota, provided we could find a commercial guy on our way out. Then dicker over the price, stash some cash in his/her pocket, and with some sort of legal evidence go out and catch a halibut.
That has not worked well. The reduced 7.5million-pound total allowable catch, was split so sport guys got about 900,000 pounds as the next management action. Then the next was the public could catch one halibut per day and two in total possession. In the past this has been two/three, and is where we should be now.
The next management action, Aug. 26, tells the sport sector our season is over on Sept. 5. This will likely mean, for the first time ever, our fishery is closed as long as it is open — but not commercial guys who can still catch another two milion pounds. This causes a big problem for sport resorts, not to mention us, who have to phone thousands of clients and tell them about this last minute change, asking whether they still want to come. Would you?
Here is what Robert Alcock, president of the Sport Fish Institute has to say: “This closure will not conserve halibut or increase employment in coastal communities. In fact, it will ensure that Canadian taxpayers will receive less value for their halibut resource. Recreational anglers who want to catch one or two of the fish that they own as Canadians should be outraged at this high-handed decision.”
Alcock also said: “By forcing an unnecessary closure to the recreational halibut fishery… DFO has demonstrated that it is beholden to the commercial halibut lobby and indifferent to the economic impacts on residents of coastal communities. DFO will have to explain to the hundreds of workers in the sport fishing industry who will be affected by this decision why their continued employment is of little importance.”
Stephen Harper said in Campbell River in May during the election that Conservative candidates were not allowed to speak about saltwater fishing and that DFO would have a solution for 2012. The downside is that the damage will have been done. The last time such a late closure was introduced — 1995 for Chinook — the sport lodge trade did not recover for five years. Here are two management strategies that will work: allow sport anglers the traditional two/three, with any overage taken out of the commercial side. Alternatively, DFO should buy 10 per cent of commercial quota and give it to the people of B.C. That management action would solve the allocation issue for the rest of this century.
