Some comments from SFI on the early closure:
http://us3.campaign-archive1.com/?u=efe5de6efa001c46a0c5b48af&id=716f2db311DFO has closed recreational halibut fishing for the 2017 season, as detailed in DFO fisheries notice, issued September 4th for the closure at 23:59 on September 6th. As many of you know, our halibut fisheries are managed differently than other species of finfish recreational anglers harvest. To provide some context for comments to follow, we provide a few details regarding the recreational halibut fishery in BC. Since 2012, the recreational sector has been provided opportunity to harvest 15% of Canada’s negotiated annual Total Allowable Catch (TAC). 15% was established based on pressure from the recreational sector to increase the allocation percentage shared with commercial fisherman from an arbitrarily set 12% in 2007. The recreational sector spent a lot of time and energy to have DFO recognize the public’s right to reasonable access to a public resource, establish a viable allocation framework that would provide stable, predictable year-round opportunities for anglers and sustainable economic benefits for those who are employed in the public fishery and for the coast. DFO’s response was to increase the allocation from 12% to 15% in 2012. This was and continues to be inadequate to achieve the goal of maximizing the social and economic benefits created by what is clearly the most valuable use of the resource.
The present formula provides 15% to recreational anglers and 85% of Canada’s halibut TAC to 435 commercial quota holders, many of whom don’t fish halibut themselves but lease the quota that they own and received for free. From the moment that the recreational halibut allocation was set it was clear that it was not adequate to allow for a reliable and full season for recreational anglers based on historic, and reasonable bag and possession limits. To salvage opportunity, management measures were proposed by the SFAB Halibut working group to slow harvest in order to provide for a reliable and full season. Those measures recommended included reducing the daily bag and possession limits, the size of halibut retained, and implementing an annual limit. Sizes have been adjusted over the years in an attempt to maximize opportunity and to ensure a full season. While this has been successful, it resulted in the recreational sector leaving over 500,000 lbs. of uncaught halibut in the water over the last few years.
As it is every year, the 2017 TAC was set in February at the International Pacific Halibut Commission meetings. Halibut are a well managed species, and catch numbers on the Pacific coast are well understood. Halibut stocks appear to be healthy in BC waters, and, as a result, Canada enjoyed a slight increase in its annual TAC in 2016 and 2017. This should mean an increase in halibut available to recreational anglers or at least the same opportunity they had the year before, right? Not so fast, although the management measures that were put in place in 2012 and adjusted each year since have left over a half million pounds of halibut in the water, there have been changes and additions made to how recreational catch is estimated. Because of this, in 2017 DFO has chosen to close the fishery with only partial information and at a time when if there had been a significant overage, it has already occurred. Post Labour Day recreational catch of halibut is much lower than the busy summer months due to work and school schedules and because of changing weather. While it is understood that DFO must forecast estimates based on previous years and trends in season, DFO staff has explained that of the 2017 forecast scenarios modelled, one projected 15,000 lbs. under our TAC by the end of August, others were over the recreational TAC and, the worst scenario, which includes unaddressed data anomalies and inconsistencies, showed an overage of 100,000 lbs. by the end of December. Considering the 2017 Canadian TAC is over 7.45 million lbs. and the recreational fishery has saved over 500,000 lbs. in the last several years, a closure based on projected overages that ranged from 15,000 lbs. under the recreational TAC to a flawed, worst-case estimate of 100,000 lbs. over (8.5% over the recreational TAC or 1.4% over Canada’s TAC if all halibut were harvested in 2017), shows an incredible lack of consideration of all factors involved, and complete disregard for the importance of the recreational fishery to small coastal communities from Prince Rupert to Sooke. The impact to small business, communities, and individuals is more damaging than any potential overage. It is also important to note that the commercial sector, as of August 29th, had 2.45 million pounds of quota in the water and SE Alaska charter fisheries will regularly surpass their TAC allowances by 200K to 300K pounds. To be clear, we are not trying to suggest that consistent overages of this scale are acceptable, but what these numbers do illustrate is the IPHC context under which we negotiate the TAC, and that the State of Alaska has a much greater appreciation for the stability of the significant number of middle class jobs created by the fishery in its jurisdiction than does the government of Canada. Alaska seems willing and able to balance the negligible political and insignificant conservation risks associated with maintaining the fishery and with the devastating and long term social and economic impacts associated with an in-season closure. Clearly, our government isn’t.
It is with these best guess predictions and the background of the details above, that DFO has chosen to close recreational halibut fishing. It is a damaging and costly example of how commercially biased DFO is and how inconsiderate they are of the needs of the recreational sector. The implications of the closure extend well beyond the end of 2017 and will potentially impact opportunities for small communities and business for years to come. Visitors planning trips in the fall will be, once again, reluctant or will decline booking when opportunity is uncertain.
It is important to note that we are not talking about any kind of a conservation related issue here, this is strictly about a flawed and biased allocation policy, and the stubborn insistence of DFO to choose an overly conservative approach to management of the recreational fishery despite different approaches taken by other jurisdictions in the Pacific Northwest, and the flawed data assumptions regarding 2016 and 2017 catch in the recreational fleet. As previously mentioned, halibut in BC waters are not in a state of conservation concern, the stock is in an increasing cycle, and average sizes of halibut are increasing. The conservation risk of keeping the recreational fishery open with the realistic potential of being over our TAC by even 9% is virtually incalculable, and falls within the margin of error in any data sets used. The impact to small business and middle-class jobs in coastal communities in BC will be harsh, and long term. This isn’t science based or even evidence based decision making, this is all about allocation politics, and the desire to have bureaucrats feel good about being able to say, “we are under our TAC” – regardless of the cost to our citizens!
Unfortunately, this ill-considered decision will undoubtedly reignite the allocation debate and discussion; how is it that DFO can allow 435 quota holders (many of whom received their quota for free because they fished halibut in the early 1990’s) to possess 85% of halibut in the water? Most quota holders don’t fish, they lease to commercial fisherman who must sell halibut to the highest bidder (which means more than 70% of commercially caught BC halibut is exported) to make profit themselves. The 300,000 recreational anglers with access to just 15% of halibut, keep more than $600 million of annual spending in our province, yet its fishery is forced to close due to a potential overage so small it is difficult to measure accurately.
While the argument to secure additional quota for the recreational sector had been dormant for many years, this decision by DFO is clearly a call to action for our sector. It is unfair and discriminatory to recreational anglers and the public that DFO is now making a decision that has no impact on conservation of halibut yet needlessly affects small businesses, communities, individual livelihoods and rights to public property.
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Topic: 2017 halibut season ends (Read 2593 times)