In 1997 and 1998. But it wasn't as though they were issued licenses, John.
When I explained to this gentleman how roe-on-kelp was produced, I described to him one method, called the “closed pond” method. But there is a second method. When the herring spawn naturally, you take the logs, with no web in them, and put them into the same proximity where the herring are spawning. They'll assume that this is a natural spawning bed for them and they'll spawn naturally. In other words, you don't have to capture them. You take the capturing part out of it and you do everything naturally.
DFO has decided that if you use a closed pond, you need 100 tonnes of herring to accomplish your goal, whereas if you use an open pond, you need only 35 tonnes to accomplish your goal. That being said, the original roe-on-kelp licences of 144,000 pounds were all transferred from closed ponds to open ponds. That in effect gave them 240,000 pounds of roe-on-kelp, which helped flood the market.
Basically, it was just an internal bookkeeping thing rather than a market-driven decision. It's a mind perception thing of the DFO's--that this is a use of herring that works better for the process than it does for the market.