Good morning, my name is Serge Blanchard, and I'm a crab fisherman. I started in 1987 as a deck hand. I became a captain in 1991 and I've been the owner captain of the JPF since 1995.
In 1995, if my memory serves me, I had an allocation of 240,000 pounds, and that was my best year because we got $3.75 a pound. From that moment, we were labelled millionaires. The co-management agreements started the next year. After that, it always varied. I had tough years in 1998 and 1999, with quotas of 165,000 pounds and 180,000 pounds, but there was no sharing in those years.
Twenty years on, it's worse than it was at the start. I have to pay all kinds of fees that previously didn't exist: licensing costs, at-sea observers, black boxes, dockside weighing, all kinds of travel for meetings with the department. We even have observer planes flying over our heads. Ultimately, there are fewer resources because there are too many fishermen.
In fact, [Editor's Note—Inaudible] to fish, Fisheries and Oceans Canada doesn't let us buy other kinds of licences. I have a groundfish licence, but, as a result of the 1992 moratorium, I only have crab to support myself.
I bought my boat and licence in 1995 with that kind of allocation, but since then Fisheries and Oceans Canada has come and taken some of it and given it free of charge to other fishermen, allegedly to rationalize. I paid for crab that I've never fished. With all that, even if I could buy other licences so I could become profitable again, I have no guarantee that Fisheries and Oceans Canada won't start up again and give my allocations to someone else free of charge.
This year, I think I lost about $80,000. If I had gotten my full quota, I would have lost less. I can't continue losing money this way for long. In addition to all this injustice based on the false idea that I'm a millionaire, I find it increasingly hard to pay my crewmen honourably. It makes no sense.
This year, it's the worst of situations: new access fishermen got more quota than I did. Up to this year, they had to choose between fishing crab or lobster. This year, they're doing both at the same time, crab and lobster. According to what Fisheries and Oceans Canada originally told us, we had to cut back the lobster fishing effort. They've simply added other fishermen to our fishery.
Thanks for coming to listen to us. To get a real idea of my situation, I invite you to come and see me on my boat. If you have any questions, I'll try to answer you to the best of my knowledge.