LETTER: Open letter to the Ministry of Fisheries and Oceans
By Contributor
To: Hon. Keith Ashfield, PC, MP, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans
Dear Minister, I am writing on behalf of the board of directors of the Sport Fishing Institute of British Columbia to express our profound disappointment with your decision to close the recreational halibut fishery on Sept. 5, thus creating the shortest recreational Pacific halibut fishery in Canadian history. Your decision is even more troubling when one considers that the decision has nothing at all to do with resource conservation. Indeed, as of Sept. 5, Canada will still be entitled to take fully, 40 percent of the total allowable catch it was assigned in 2011 by the International Pacific Halibut Commission. Sadly, your decision appears entirely aimed at protecting what seem to have become the property rights of the 436 commercial quota holders to whom your predecessors gifted 88 percent of Canada’s Pacific halibut resource. While this decision will have a substantial impact on the economies of hundreds of businesses and dozens of coastal communities that depend on the recreational halibut fishery for economic activity, it might be understandable if commercial quota holders were actually required to utilize their licences and quota shares. However, Chris Sporer, the head of the ill-named Pacific Halibut Management Association recently bragged to the Vancouver Sun that the entire commercial catch was harvested by 157 boats. In addition to confirming that licence holders are allowed to treat their quota as a tradable commodity, Mr. Sporer’s statement makes clear that your department is ignoring the requirement of its own Groundfish Integrated Harvest Management Plan that eligibility for commercial quota be “vessel-based”. We should add that allowing much of the halibut quota to fall into the hands of “slipper skippers” who profit by requiring their working colleagues to become sharecroppers subject to exorbitant annual leasing rates directly contradicts the announced East Coast policy of your ministerial predecessors Loyola Hearn and Gail Shea supporting “fleet rationalization and the owner-operator principle, as announced in the April 2007 statement on fisheries renewal.” We look forward to an explanation of this regional difference in policy. The effects of your decision are already being felt. Journalists from as far away as Germany have contacted our offices asking why they were not informed months ago about when the halibut fishery would close. They are trying to understand how they can inform their customers about when to book trips to British Columbia for a fishing vacation. Worse still, Canadians who were planning on catching a halibut or two this fall will now discover that they can only catch one of the fish that they believe they own, if they lease permission to fish from one of 436 commercial quota holders. In order to do this, they will be asked to pay a “gifted slipper skipper” more than $5.00 a pound—compared with the average of 10 cents a pound these profiteers pay the department for their annual assignment of quota! According to a recent study conducted for the BC Seafood Alliance (the commercial sector’s industry association), the recreational fishery in BC produces $642 million in annual sales, pays $150 million in wages and benefits, creates more than 7,800 jobs and 3,950 person-years of employment and contributes $240 million to the province’s gross domestic product. Your decision only serves to undermine this important economic generator while enriching non-fishing quota holders who are being allowed to ignore the departments own vessel-based licensing system. During an April 30 campaign stop on Vancouver Island, Prime Minister Harper told island residents that “Our government recognizes the importance of the halibut fishery in BC. The jobs and regional economic impact of the commercial, recreational and related tourism in BC are substantial. We remain committed to finding a solution to BC’s halibut allocation issue in advance of the 2012 season that strikes a fair balance between all sectors.” At this point our industry can only attempt to contain the damage your decision has caused, and hope that the Prime Minister’s personal commitment to fix the allocation model in time for the 2012 season was sincere. Sincerely, Robert Alcock President Sport Fishing Institute of British Columbia
