Sadly BearCove, this is not the case and most guides and operators are reluctant to give up good information. Some do but most don't. Lots of people say they will at the beginning of the season and when it comes down to the crunch and DFO needs good catch estimates, sadly most of the logbook data isn't what it could be. Garbage in garbage out as some may say.
Lets consider Catch Monitoring for example:
Lots of reasons why people feel they don't need/want to report good catch info, we don't need to get into that here.
But guess which group or groups love to take those poor catch reporting examples to the bank when allocation issues come up, sector negotiations, etc..? If you guys want to point fingers at other guys and say, oh what about them, or them, u better be able to look at your own sector first and not have too many blemishes to hide. Think not reporting catch helps you in the long run? NO. Couldn't be farther from the truth, you guys are actually hamstringing yourselves by doing this. This is not a cowboy fishery any more.
I'm not on here to try and persuade you guys to report catch because you should, I'm on here because I care about fish and our fisheries on a professional and a personal level. I think that the recreational sector needs to get rid of the paranoia, unite as a group and work with SFAB and the Department to pursue your interests as best as possible. Be professional about it.
Old Black Dog is right, the commies prob love this site, listening to a bunch of people bitchin, and them getting a certain perspective on issues because of what a few people say/write on here. If you want to *****, by all means continue, but if you want to change things - Searun is right - change is through the SFAB. All of our South Coast areas have local committees called SFAC's and they are part of the board. Bitching will likely get you no where, but the SFAB will.
Example:
For those of you who fished in Nootka this year I'm sure you noticed that I changed some of the boundaries there in 2012. That was done through the SFAC and the SFAB. Long story short - local area has an issue, I come up and check it out, bring some of the right people up to undestand what is going on and we discuss it. A request gets made at a committee meeting, is discussed, voted on it and is passed. The SFAC Area rep takes it to the South Coast SFAB level and presents the request, it gets voted on by the different SFAB chairs and it gets passed. The South Coast SFAB rep takes it to the Mainboard SFAB and does the same thing - it passes. Now DFO deals with it, because it's legit and supported by the process. It doesn't mean that whatever gets passed becomes gospel, it just means that DFO has to deal with it.
I take that to Science, Stock Assessment, C&P, First Nations, etc...figure out any issues relating to the request, and make recommendations. Some get changed some dont. But thats the process, and I don't get why you guys aren't all over that. If we could get more of you who really care enough about this stuff to take your opinions and time and move it from your computer screen to real life and plug it into the SFAB process it will only make it better.
Other organizations work too, like the BCWF - these organizations all feed into the SFAB process.
Searun, if you guys want to see halibut data I'm sure we can get that sent out. I'll look into that.
