Wow, wasn't that an interesting read. Firstly, I'm OK with conservation closures. If these closures are necessary and supportable scientifically then that is the right thing to do.
I personally have a lot to learn about prawn management. I still haven't been able to fully understand how the spawner index works and is responsive enough to provide reliable, fast, in the moment management decision analytics. Seems that this method is always lagging behind what is happening on the grounds when trying to manage the commercial fishery in particular - which can remove large quantities of prawns over a short period.
I'm also personally in favour of Area licensing to encourage more responsible fishing practices, as opposed the the "run and gun" approach that has developed in the past decade. For example, with these fast light boats in use now, commercial prawners can blast an area like carpet bombing, and quickly pick up and move areas to repeat the process. All this happens so quickly, how on earth can DFO Managers react in a timely way to close down sub areas that get bombed? To me the benefit of Area licensing is there is a direct link to looking after the well being of a particular Area because your future as a fisher is tied directly to the healthy management of it. Wide open, run and gun fisheries do not bring about any real accountability.
Not being critical of DFO, just trying to better understand how we can manage this fishery more wisely - and of course to share my perspective.
Prawn on.
Holy **** searun, I just spent over an hour writing you a response on a blackberry playbook (painfully slow) and when I went to post it I was logged off and I lost it all....
Ok, here goes for the second time around. My first response was probably better than this will be.
The spawner index isnt a responsive tool, and it doesn't provide any magical analytics. All it is is a biological reference point that gives you an idea of where you want to be in regards to the number of females you are catching per trap (on average) as you harvest prawns. When the commercial fishery opens in May/June the spawner index is around 6-7 spawners per trap (thats the minimum DFO thinks is a good population base to sustain healthy populations into the future...lots of work went into this). The spawner index has a long history of being used to manage the prawn fisheries in BC, 30+ years, and it has worked well for a long time. As the commercial fishery takes place in May and June DFO gets samples in-season that give them snapshots of biologically where the population is at. At the start of the season the samples are all over the place, 20, 30 more, etc spawners ...and sometimes they are lower but in general they are up there. As the commercial fishery continues and the prawn abundance is fished down, the spawner numbers start to come down closer to the index and DFO makes decisions on when to close areas based on that data and fishing effort. DFO doesn't wait until the index is breached before making decisions to close, they assess the risk based on the effort and what the data in the area is looking like, where the samples are coming from, how many boats in the areas, distibution of samples spatially and temporally, etc..there's a whole bunch of factors that add up to whether or not an area should close.
How long areas stay open is how the Department deals with the "run and gun" fishery as you call it, there's less tolerance of leaving areas open for any length of time because there's more risk associated with more vessels fishing in smaller areas. As more vessles funnel in to smaller spaces, areas close sooner and the Coastwide closure goes into effect sooner. Last year it was 40 days. The commercial vessels all have electronic monitoring systems on their vessels, so DFO knows where they area and can keep track of all of this stuff. They meet twice a week to review all of this information an make decisions as to what areas should close when.
Keep in mind that the spawner index is one tool in the tool box to manage prawn fisheries, its not the only thing DFO uses. There are lots of other tools that are just as important/more important. There are commercial license limits, trap limits, size limits, haul limits (once per day), no berried females, season timing, etc...that are all management measures used to manage the fishery. The season length fluctuates with abundance, but in the last few years hasn't changed drastically. You can't bet the farm on the spawner index and get too worked up about it because it just gives you a snapshot of where you are biologically as you fish, and where you want to be (minimum abundance). It's a piece of the pie, it's not the whole pie.
Its complicated, but hopefully some of this stuff helps you guys understand what really goes into this fishery. The SFAB and DFO work hard to ensure the prawn fishery remains a world-class fishery (it currently is) and you should be thankful for all of the work that a handful of people do on your behalf rather than slinging mud.
