I've tossed and turned on this issue for the past few days and gone back over this and the other thread on this issue and have an observation and a question for you guys...
The DFO have placed all ll kinds of limits on various species of Salmon, in terms of timing, size, catch and even where they can be caught (or not), cod, prawns, crabs and so on. These new Halibut regulations are, as far as I can see, an extension of past regulations concerning timing, size and catch. In addition, these new regs provide recreational fishermen the ability to "buy" quota from commercial license holders that provide the rec fishers the ability to fish beyond the normal limits. What this essentially means that instead of buying halibut from a commercial license holder at the dock for the fully loaded price of the fish, a rec fisherman can pay a "wholesale" price to the commercial fisherman for some of the commercial guy's quota and go out and catch the fish himself. This ability does not exist for any other species of fish.
People on this and the other forum on this topic have suggested this scheme allowing buying quota, which should not increase the amount of fish actually being caught as being immoral, unethical, undemocratic and will generally lead to the complete destruction of the recreational fishing industry as we know it.
I'd like someone to very clearly outline how these regulations, that as i see it at least, do the same thing with Halibut as has been done with most of the other things we drag out of the ocean plus give us the ability to extend our catch beyond the limits if we're prepared to buy "uncaught" fish from the Commercial guy rather than buying the "caught" fish from him off the dock are so wrong.