One of the sales points that the slipper skippers used when they twisted the arms of DFO to gift them the 88% halibut quota was that the uncertainty and short opening style of commercial fishery resulted in a gold rush mentality leading to increased risk and put commercial halibut fishermen lives at risk. That could have been resolved be giving them individual allocation rather than transferrable ownership, but of course that would not have resulted in the creation of instant lottery winner millionaires who could then quit fishing and watch the money roll in forever.
By grossly under allocating the recreational share of the halibut fishery it would appear that they have simply transferred that risk and more to the recreational sector. There is no more dangerous activity in recreational tidal water fishing than deep water off shore anchoring for halibut. Push the envelope, go when the current and the weather is not as good as it should be, or stay a little to long when the current picks up and you can end up in serious trouble or even dead. That is why most keep a knife handy to try and cut themselves free from the anchor line when their boat starts to go under. Ironically recreational anglers use much smaller boats than the commercials and anchor which makes the risk all the greater. That is also why Recreational anglers are so opposed to the recent reduction to one halibut a day from two. It just makes no sense to accept all the costs and risk even under the best circumstances to catch only one halibut.
You can see it happening right before our eyes in the previous posts. When seasons are reduced and anglers have the sense that their fishing opportunities are being reduced it is unfortunately human nature to push the envelope perhaps a little more than one should. Why is it that our Federal politicians and DFO are so willing to endanger recreational anglers by their ill-conceived policies when they were not willing to do so for professional commercial crews in large boats? If just one angler is injured or dies because of our federal politicians pig headed stubbornness in refusing to address the unfair halibut allocation issue, then Harper and Shea will have blood on their hands. Save some money for lawyers to represent us at the Coroner’s Inquest and be prepared to fry the politicians.
