Well this SUCKS eh!! If a full season is important to you anyways. Or in my case you where working on plans for a late sept ,early Oct Halibut trip . HA HA!
Is anyone really surprised by this? Honestly we could see this from a mile away. 15% was not enough years ago wen we got the extra 3%, and it is not enough now. Yes some very hardworking creative thinking folks managed to keep us in full seasons for a few extra years. Yes many of us are appreciative of that fact,and understand this would have come sooner had it not been for those efforts. Bottom line is we have proven that playing with the math to make the same bad situation look different from year to year has not solved our problems. The fact that we are right back to where we where wen everyone got pissed off and pulled together
proves that point.
I agree fully that we need to go after a higher percentage of the TAC. I also understand that a large effort has been made to show that the rec sector is a leader in taking steps to manage our fishery in a responsible, and accountable way. So now it is time to use those facts to go after a proper share of the resource that will better represent the value,and needs of our sector.
No I do not agree with splitting our sector into more segments with such foolishness as guide and lodge rec quota and non vested rec quota. . How do you think that would go wen quota dips really low and we are facing crappy heavily restricted salmon seasons. How much more value will be put on that quota and how much narrower do you think the funnel will get. Do we not think those with the most $ in the game will not yet again come out on top.
This ITQ SCAM that was passed off as a management tool continues to push more and more opportunity and access away from the Joe Canadian and funnel it to less and less people. If we continue to put all our effort into trying to make things work within this scam instead of pushing as hard and as publicly as possible against ITQ, private ownership of 85% of the resource, and the two teared divisive quota leasing BS we will never see any substantial long term change.
Nothing in this post is intended to be in the spirit of criticizing the SFAB ect, for we would be lost without them and I for one am grateful for the work done.. The only reason I jumped in on this is in the hope that the complacency that has fallen upon many of us will come to an end and folks will start getting interested in the big picture again. If we go down the road of splitting our sector or trying to raise money to buy our way into more quota we will only be speeding up the inevitable end game that the ITQ SCAM is on a very deliberate path to achieving.
These are my thoughts on the matter. they have not changed since I was first made aware of the ITQ back wen we rallied for the 3%..Guess thats why this posts reads the same as countless others I have made over the last number of years.