Sea Run, you are right on...unfortunately, however, this is a case where the representatives of the Recreational / public fishery, DFO, have not even begun to spend the money needed to deal with accurate catch reporting...but this is in some part understandable because the sheer numbers challenge most people and processes. It is disturbing for me to hear rumours that one segment of the harvesters may be utilizing sport licenses to report high catch numbers, while others are under reporting to try to compensate....what a shame the battle for access to the common property resource has to deal with this kind of thinking, but there we are.
The answer of course, is to have real face to face interviews at boat ramps, or even better punch cards with an annual limit that have to be turned in to get the next year's license....but DFO is not funded to do this, and the enforcement people will simply not accept annual limits, they refuse to go that route no matter much we request it.
What to do? Wait until we do get increased license fees guaranteed directed to recreational management which includes better catch monitoring and uses interviews, enforcement and perhaps punch cards to validate the internet survey, which if checked up on should be a valuable tool....yes we need catch information, and recreational community do support it from my experience.