To the Editor,
Re: Debate over halibut fishery heating up, Jan. 25.
Guided and non-guided anglers share a concern about how the 88/12 allocation model has resulted in dramatically lower catch limits and a much shortened season.
We are equally upset that our opportunity to fish is being restricted by businessmen who believe that they “own” our common property halibut resource. Lodges and guides provide a service to Canadians – they don’t catch fish.
In 2003, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans unilaterally imposed a 12-per cent halibut allocation on the recreational community and gifted 88 per cent to the commercial fleet. This division has consistently been opposed by recreational anglers.
B.C.’s 100,000 recreational anglers are managed by DFO as the Fisheries Act has required it to do for the past century. In fact, DFO does a good job of coast-wide data collection. Lodges report their guests’ catches weekly, and their data is audited and validated throughout the fishing season. DFO and the International Halibut Commission accept this as a highly accountable process.
Recreational anglers believe that reasonable access to a conservation-managed fisheries resource is a historically-established right. Giving 88 per cent of the halibut in the Pacific region to private interests and unfairly restricting public fishing is simply bad policy. Bad policies should be changed.
Deryk Krefting
via e-mail
