Important Mtg. Reminder: Nov. 6 Victoria & Area SFAB Meeting

[searun]

How about doing away with the paper licenses all together. Making the SFI app mandatory for everyone, and record our catch data there. This data would then be instantly sent to DFO, and BOOM! instant real time data to base informed decisions on. No more fill inn the catch survey emails cuz DFO already knows where I fished and what fish I caught.. No more guessing how much halibut TAC was taken.

That's the plan - Fisheries Act revisions hopefully will look after the current requirement to record catch "in ink" and once that is eliminated it will open the door to electronic catch recording/reporting. Finally we will have instant and reliable catch data. It is "fisher dependent" meaning the fisher needs to record the data which can be subject to error, and as such will still need to be monitored and independently or "fisher independent" verified. Kind of like an audit. Rec community has been begging for this change for years...it appears to be just around the corner if the Act amendments go through.

 

[Jencourt]

Still lots of folks walking around without cell phones etc. Will there still be a paper option for them?

 

[searun]

Still lots of folks walking around without cell phones etc. Will there still be a paper option for them?

Yup, just like there are folks still walking around with flip phones Gota accommodate them too.

 

[Last Chance]

No cell coverage in most places. Lots of tourists. Losts of people who cant figure out a flip phone. Would be great if we could make it work tho.

 

[scott craven]

No cell coverage in most places. Lots of tourists. Losts of people who cant figure out a flip phone. Would be great if we could make it work tho.

you're right Kelly, I don't think it would work for most west coast fisheries
due to insufficient coverage.

 

[Stizzla]

I don’t see the difficulty in having licenses turned in at the end of the year. It’s simple.

 

[ziggy]

Part of renewing your license online should include transferring any recorded data that was on the previous years to DFO . It ain’t Rocket Science!

 

[searun]

No cell coverage in most places. Lots of tourists. Losts of people who cant figure out a flip phone. Would be great if we could make it work tho.

Its not rocket surgery to make it work. The app is programmed (I believe it is currently) to download data as soon as the phone comes into cell range. No real delay in DFO receiving the data - a few days max. Better than today where they are still inputting the Guide Log Book data from this summer - and its November! And it is also programmed to record, save and create a record once it is created by the user that cannot be changed. Keeping with the rocket surgery theme, if we can move from driving horse and buggy to flying to the moon in 1 generation, I'm fairly confident we got this one.

 

[Stizzla]

Good points Searun, but It’s not about cell range. It’s about those who don’t have cell phones at all. They’re still out there.
I don’t think they have to look over each and every license. Just do a good amount and take averages. It’s better than the fly-over method. Some of us suck at fishing and they still count us.

 

[fish brain]

Good points Searun, but It’s not about cell range. It’s about those who don’t have cell phones at all. They’re still out there.
I don’t think they have to look over each and every license. Just do a good amount and take averages. It’s better than the fly-over method. Some of us suck at fishing and they still count us.

Set it up so you can do a paper one on request, and make it mandatory to turn it in at the end of the season, no need to calculate averages. DFO sucks at math. I think we are talking about a small percentage of licensees

 

[Whole in the Water]

Been told I the past that DFO does not have the staff and budget to tabulate and analyze all the data from the paper fishing licenses. That’s why they have not used this data in the past. Not sure how truthful this is.

 

[ziggy]

Been told I the past that DFO does not have the staff and budget to tabulate and analyze all the data from the paper fishing licenses. That’s why they have not used this data in the past. Not sure how truthful this is.

I’m no computer expert, but it seems to me it would be pretty easy to create an online file that the Fisher fills in for them, containing all his recorded catch from his current license.Part of the online application process for your new license would make sense. Heck they can do random surveys, so it’s no giant technological leap. Wouldn’t capture all the data, but would supply a lot more.

 

[profisher]

Wouldn't be hard to have a season ending online pdf type file to transfer all your kept fish onto. Just enter a fishing license number and fill in the dates and area for an accurate count.