IronNoggin
Well-Known Member
Candidate Q and A - Halibut allocation
Kitimat Sentinel
Published: April 29, 2011 8:00 AM
Where do you stand on the halibut allocation issue?
Maggie Braun
When an individual’s right to fish is taken away and given to large companies to profit financially from, I stand on the side of logic.
The halibut are a Canadian resource and should be used to feed our families. Those who have interfered with and diminished those resources should contribute whatever is needed to empower the people to restore them. We all benefit from that.
Healthy populations of halibut for human (family, not commercial) and ecosystem needs has to be the top priority, and decisions about how to achieve or preserve that can best be made by the communities involved.
Nathan Cullen
The current halibut allocation policy is an offense to our most basic Canadian value: that public resources like fish belong to the public at the end of the day.
For years now successive Liberal and Conservative governments have been pushing the quota system on commercial fishermen and now the sports sector as well.
This agenda allows individuals to buy up tonnes of halibut and then rent them back to people trying to make a living. Fishermen ‘lease’ the halibut for $5 a pound and then make only a dollar or two at the market.
This year the catch is lower than usual and the recreational and charter fishermen believe there will be no more fish after August 1st. This creates real uncertainty and threatens business.
We need a policy that ensures that who has the quota has to fish it and that the public have fair access to our public fishery.
Clay Harmon
The following points outline our position on the halibut fishery:
1. Our government recognizes the value of the halibut fishery to the people of British Columbia.
2. The decision on the 2011 Pacific halibut fishing season maintains the current allocation formula that has been in place since 2003. The recreational fishery opened this year on March 1 with a daily limit of one halibut and a possession limit of two.
3. The key difference, however, for this season is the availability of an experimental license to any individual wishing to fish recreationally outside of the current recreational limits.
The experimental licence will allow the license holder to lease additional access that can be fished in addition to their regular recreational license.
4. The issuance of experimental licences is intended as an interim measure, and as such, minister Shea has asked her parliamentary secretary, Randy Kamp, to lead a process aimed at developing additional fisheries management and allocation options prior to the 2012 season.
These options will meet the following objectives:
Conservation: ensuring all halibut fisheries are fished within the total allowable catch.
Economic prosperity through predictable access for all users.
Flexibility through an effective mechanism for transfers between the sectors.
These options provide the opportunity to have access to the halibut fishery in the current year through the experimental license and provide the time to lead a process aimed at developing additional fisheries management and allocation options prior to the 2012 season.
I have listened to representatives of both the commercial and the sport fishery and look forward to future meetings with both groups to help cut the red tape towards an equitable resolution when I am elected as Member of Parliament for the Skeena Bulkley Valley Electoral District.
A Conservative vote will help to resolve this issue according to plan.
Rod Taylor
The halibut resource belongs to all Canadians and should not be controlled by 436 quota holders.
As both a food resource and recreational opportunity, BC’s anglers should be allowed reasonable catch opportunities during a normal fishing season.
Quota currently held by the 436 quota-holders should be subject to “use it or lose it.” Unused quota should be made available to other Canadians (recreational anglers) and should not become itself an exorbitantly-priced and leveraged commodity.
I support the idea that a recreational angler could take the limit of two halibut in a single day; I believe that is reasonable and allows for some efficiency and reduced costs for anglers.
Kyle Warwick
As usual, the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans has failed to do their job properly. As in past decades, they have failed to adequately consult commercial, recreational, and First Nations fishermen, in order to find an allocation that all sides can accept.
As MP, I will pressure the DFO to sit down with each group and to genuinely listen to their demands, rather than simply imposing quotas from Ottawa, without a proper understanding of the conditions on the ground here on the North Coast.
http://www.bclocalne.../120633904.html
"A Conservative vote will help to resolve this issue according to plan." May as well have simply said BEND OVER!
We recognize exactly what will happen according to their "Plan". Even Harper's desperate speaking to the matter of late notes that he and his party are pleased with what they have done thus far to screw us. Time for a few of them to embrace the words of one of the Fish Brokers in this matter: Let Them Play Golf!
Cheers,
Nog
Kitimat Sentinel
Published: April 29, 2011 8:00 AM
Where do you stand on the halibut allocation issue?
Maggie Braun
When an individual’s right to fish is taken away and given to large companies to profit financially from, I stand on the side of logic.
The halibut are a Canadian resource and should be used to feed our families. Those who have interfered with and diminished those resources should contribute whatever is needed to empower the people to restore them. We all benefit from that.
Healthy populations of halibut for human (family, not commercial) and ecosystem needs has to be the top priority, and decisions about how to achieve or preserve that can best be made by the communities involved.
Nathan Cullen
The current halibut allocation policy is an offense to our most basic Canadian value: that public resources like fish belong to the public at the end of the day.
For years now successive Liberal and Conservative governments have been pushing the quota system on commercial fishermen and now the sports sector as well.
This agenda allows individuals to buy up tonnes of halibut and then rent them back to people trying to make a living. Fishermen ‘lease’ the halibut for $5 a pound and then make only a dollar or two at the market.
This year the catch is lower than usual and the recreational and charter fishermen believe there will be no more fish after August 1st. This creates real uncertainty and threatens business.
We need a policy that ensures that who has the quota has to fish it and that the public have fair access to our public fishery.
Clay Harmon
The following points outline our position on the halibut fishery:
1. Our government recognizes the value of the halibut fishery to the people of British Columbia.
2. The decision on the 2011 Pacific halibut fishing season maintains the current allocation formula that has been in place since 2003. The recreational fishery opened this year on March 1 with a daily limit of one halibut and a possession limit of two.
3. The key difference, however, for this season is the availability of an experimental license to any individual wishing to fish recreationally outside of the current recreational limits.
The experimental licence will allow the license holder to lease additional access that can be fished in addition to their regular recreational license.
4. The issuance of experimental licences is intended as an interim measure, and as such, minister Shea has asked her parliamentary secretary, Randy Kamp, to lead a process aimed at developing additional fisheries management and allocation options prior to the 2012 season.
These options will meet the following objectives:
Conservation: ensuring all halibut fisheries are fished within the total allowable catch.
Economic prosperity through predictable access for all users.
Flexibility through an effective mechanism for transfers between the sectors.
These options provide the opportunity to have access to the halibut fishery in the current year through the experimental license and provide the time to lead a process aimed at developing additional fisheries management and allocation options prior to the 2012 season.
I have listened to representatives of both the commercial and the sport fishery and look forward to future meetings with both groups to help cut the red tape towards an equitable resolution when I am elected as Member of Parliament for the Skeena Bulkley Valley Electoral District.
A Conservative vote will help to resolve this issue according to plan.
Rod Taylor
The halibut resource belongs to all Canadians and should not be controlled by 436 quota holders.
As both a food resource and recreational opportunity, BC’s anglers should be allowed reasonable catch opportunities during a normal fishing season.
Quota currently held by the 436 quota-holders should be subject to “use it or lose it.” Unused quota should be made available to other Canadians (recreational anglers) and should not become itself an exorbitantly-priced and leveraged commodity.
I support the idea that a recreational angler could take the limit of two halibut in a single day; I believe that is reasonable and allows for some efficiency and reduced costs for anglers.
Kyle Warwick
As usual, the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans has failed to do their job properly. As in past decades, they have failed to adequately consult commercial, recreational, and First Nations fishermen, in order to find an allocation that all sides can accept.
As MP, I will pressure the DFO to sit down with each group and to genuinely listen to their demands, rather than simply imposing quotas from Ottawa, without a proper understanding of the conditions on the ground here on the North Coast.
http://www.bclocalne.../120633904.html
"A Conservative vote will help to resolve this issue according to plan." May as well have simply said BEND OVER!
We recognize exactly what will happen according to their "Plan". Even Harper's desperate speaking to the matter of late notes that he and his party are pleased with what they have done thus far to screw us. Time for a few of them to embrace the words of one of the Fish Brokers in this matter: Let Them Play Golf!
Cheers,
Nog
