Thank you very much.
I'm a three-hull-based full-time crab fisherman. I bought my first boat when I was 22. I have two sons-in-law involved in the fishery with me now. Unfortunately it's becoming more and more difficult coping with the policies and regulations that DFO is putting on us. I'd like to outline some of the regulations that maybe we could change, and I'd like someone to look at them.
We have a family business, and DFO is telling us that we cannot fish our three licences on one vessel. They're telling us to buy a second vessel. I don't see why we should have a second vessel when we can bring all licences in on one. Also, crab has a four-month season. DFO put a 12-month rule in place. I don't see why a boat in your name has to stay there for 12 months. That's hindering us when we're changing boats to catch our three licences. I don't see why DFO can't change the wording and maybe put in one change per calendar year.
Two or three years ago, I remember DFO took the 12-month rule out and put in a six-month rule. The following year, they put the 12-month rule back in place. So it's not as though they can't do something about it. When we're fishing, our two buddied-up individual quotas take about 10 weeks to catch. The other licence takes four weeks to catch.
So this 12-month rule, when we're trying to combine licences, or purchase more licences to build up our business, is crippling us. We're not able to do it without buying a second vessel. I don't want to invest another $300,000 or $400,000 to buy a vessel.
Also, this year in particular, our fishery opened April 1. So fishermen went in and picked up their licences April 1. Because I was buddied up with my son-in-law, my licence wasn't available until April 12. So I lost 12 days of fishing time. Our season closes July 30. I don't know if they're going to give me 12 days more than the other fishermen at the end of the season. I'm very doubtful. So paperwork should be available April 1 or even before April 1.
Our vessel can carry 55,000 pounds in an RSW tank. It's top-quality crab. We've been doing it for 10 years with RSW. DFO is telling us we have trip limits. Now the trip limit for an RSW vessel I think is 50,000 pounds. Some boats can carry 55,000 or 60,000 pounds, and I don't see why we have to judge how much crab is in those tanks. We fill them up. They can stay in the tanks forever. Quality is not an issue. So fill up your tanks, and bring them in. If the production plant can handle it, offload it. Having trip limits to me is not conservation; it's interference, especially for RSW boats. Trip limits should be gone. To my mind, DFO shouldn't have anything to do with trip limits. Let the processor deal with his own fishermen. If the processor can handle it, bring it in.