Editor:
In the years before the sport lodges and sport charter boats, there was enough fish for any person who choose to
fish.
When the Total Allowable Catch (TAC) of Halibut was 11 million lbs there was never a problem for the lodges and charter boats, but now that the TAC has been reduced by 45 per cent and the usual commercial quotas has decreased, eg.. 10,000 lbs – 5,500 lbs, the commercial sport sector feel that they do not need to contribute to the conservation of Halibut. Seems to me their idea of conservation is to take more fish from me to continue their business at my expense.
That being said as an ordinary recreational fisher the Halibut is closed because the lodges and charter boats have taken their share and mine too. I cannot have a Halibut license because there is no accounting of the Halibut they catch. Maybe they should be observed and have a quota like the commercial fleet. If Halibut is leased from the commercial sector by the DFO, which would be federal money that belongs to the people of Canada, then so are the fish.
Being a Canadian and a recreational sport fisher I would like to be able to catch my share of the leased fish, which my tax dollars paid for.
Thank-you,
Paul Paulson