ANNOUNCEMENT
BC Halibut Fishermen's Livelihoods Threatened

The following statement conveys the Pacific Halibut Management Association's views on the state of BC's halibut fishery.

Everyone loves a good fish story. But the recent tale by BC's fishing lodge and charter vessel interests that DFO will close the recreational halibut fishery mid-season to protect the interests of commercial fishermen is far-fetched.

The commercial halibut fishery employs thousands of hard working people on fishing boats, in processing plants and in support businesses. The fishing lodge and charter vessel interests are seeking to have federal fisheries Minister Gail Shea alter a long-standing allocation policy, and re-allocate the halibut resource from commercial fishermen to benefit their recreational fishing businesses. Such a re-allocation would take halibut away from Canadian consumers who enjoy eating commercially-caught halibut in restaurants or at home.

The fishing lodges and charter vessel companies participated in a process that resulted in an allocation policy implemented in 2003. Now that the policy doesn't give them what they want — increased access to halibut at commercial fishermen's expense — they have decided to ignore the official policy and have resorted to political lobbying.

Is this how Canada's fisheries should be managed? Whoever can wage the slickest lobbying campaign gets to decide how to manage our country's fisheries?

Commercial halibut fishermen are ordinary Canadians who support the rights of individual anglers to catch a halibut every so often for enjoyment and to fill up the freezer. But most ordinary Canadians buy their halibut at the grocery store or enjoy it in a restaurant; they can't afford to spend thousands of dollars to visit a fancy fishing lodge for a few nights. Approximately, seventy percent of the recreational halibut catch is attributed to the lodge and charter businesses.

BC's commercial fishermen have fished for halibut for more than 100 years. They've developed the fishery, just like early farmers developed the land. Over the last 30 years, commercial fishermen have invested in reforms to meet conservation requirements, sustain the resource for future generations, and make Pacific halibut a sustainable, healthy seafood product for consumers. As a result of these reforms and costly investments by commercial fishermen, the British Columbia halibut fishery became the province's first fishery to gain Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification, and groups like the David Suzuki Foundation call it one of the best managed fisheries in the world.

Canadian commercial halibut fishermen are accountable for every single fish they harvest. As noted by Dr. Scott Wallace of the David Suzuki Foundation in a 2008 news release, "…each fish is videotaped when pulled from the sea, recorded in a logbook, counted again by an independent dockside monitor when brought to shore, and then tagged through the tail with a unique serial number to validate its origin and track it through the market."

Halibut is going through a period of low abundance on the Pacific coast. Commercial halibut fishermen know low abundance means lower harvests; the fishing lodge and charter vessel industries want to increase their catch at a time when caution is necessary. Protecting the resource must come first, and we all must bear the costs of conservation.

A set amount of halibut can be harvested each year. If the sports sector receives more, then it comes straight out of the pockets of commercial fishermen, many of whom have mortgaged their houses to buy licenses and quotas and invested in catch monitoring and enforcement. Reallocating halibut to the fishing lodge and charter vessel industry also reduces the share available to First Nations communities who have invested in licenses and quota.

The halibut allocation policy implemented by the Minister of Fisheries in 2003 — and supported by three Fisheries Ministers since — doesn't need to restrict access for individual anglers or shut down the season mid-summer. Instead, fishing lodges and charters vessel businesses that see opportunities to expand can acquire quota from Canadian commercial halibut fishermen. Such programs have been applied in fisheries on Canada's Atlantic coast and are proposed for the Alaskan charter vessel halibut fishery.

The federal government should stick with a policy 10 years in the making that is fair to individual anglers, to commercial fishermen and to the fishing lodge and charter vessel interests. Otherwise, fisheries won't be managed on scientific research, economic analysis, policy and process. Instead, we'll get fisheries management by political lobbying. And that's pretty fishy.

Get more information about this important matter here...