By
Ralph Shaw - Comox Valley Record
Published:
March 30, 2012 10:00 AM
I think it was Genghis Khan who said, "May you live in interesting times." I am not certain how far he was looking into the future, but our times certainly qualify on many fronts. Fisheries issues are looming large: the common property aspects of the halibut resource and the current reported plans to take "habitat protection" out of the Fisheries Act are two vexing problems.
At the Area 14 Sport Fishery Advisory Committee (SFAC) meeting on March 19, the following motion was pasted unanimously:
Halibut Management Motion
"Whereas the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans has only increased the recreational Halibut Quota from 12% to 15% of the Canadian Total Allowable Catch of Pacific halibut, and
"Whereas this allocation is insufficient to allow a full (Feb.l to Dec. 31) season fishery, with catch limits of two halibut per day and three in possession, and
"Whereas the late announcement of the new allocation by the minister has placed the Sport Fishery Advisory Board in an untenable position of designing a management strategy in a short time frame for the 2012 recreational season that:
"A) Included an untried management regime of one fish per day and 2 in possession with conditions that one fish could only be any size, but the second fish must be under 83cm or 151bs in the round in order to stay within the assigned 2012 Total Allowable Catch (TAG)
"B) Did not allow for the consultation with local SFAC s for their input:
"Be It Therefore Resolved the Department of Fisheries and Oceans be asked to consider this year's regulatory measures as EXPERIMENTAL and that discussions re various additional options be available at certain levels of the TAG for 2013 start taking place with the SFAB Halibut Working Group in a timely manner such that local SFACs have adequate consultation and input into the 2013 recreational halibut management plan."
If you wonder about the history behind this motion it was not very long ago that the recreational allocation of the Canadian TAG was 20 per cent. It is interesting to observe that democracies make big issues out of the freedom of their citizens, but when it comes to managing common property resources they frequently give large portions of the commons to the private sector – as in the historic case of the E&N Land Grant on the east coast of Vancouver Island.
It is justified as an easy out for management of the commons; however when the bottom line is profit for the owner of the resource, the local citizens must stand on the sidelines while their value-added jobs go elsewhere as in the raw log exports from Vancouver Island. The value-added jobs from the recreational fishery in small coastal communities is real in maintaining their varied resource bases to survive.
• • •
Another matter of urgent concern is the reported plan to amend the Fisheries Act to remove Habitat Protection from certain sections of the act. The assumed purpose of this amendment is to facilitate industrial developments such as mines and pipelines to be built without rigorous protection of fishery habitat,
In
Turning the Tide - A New Policy for Canada's Pacific Fisheries - The Commission on Pacific Fisheries Policy Final Report by Commissioner Peter H. Pearse in September 1982 we find the following quote in italics on page 19, Chapter 3 - Habitat Management:
"When fish habitat is lost or threatened, the fish stocks and species which depend upon it for food, protection and reproduction are similarly lost or threatened. In short, if habitat goes, so eventually do the fish...." Submitted by the British Columbia Wildlife Federation.
In the second paragraph on Page 19 we find the following - "In a more fundamental sense, the resource base is the natural environment that supports fish. Unless the quality and productivity of the aquatic habitat is maintained, even the best of stock management will be to no avail. Whenever the environment that fish depend on for food or reproduction is damaged the fish are threatened. Thus, the protection of aquatic habitat is considered by many to be the 'first and foremost' problem of fisheries policy."
In this regard I suggest the Baynes Sound fishery is threatened by a proposed coal mine on its watershed and we should be concerned.
Ralph Shaw is a master fly fisherman who was awarded the Order of Canada in 1984 for his conservation efforts. In 20 years of writing a column in the Comox Valley Record
it has won several awards.
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