In the first years the lobster fishermen in Cape Breton got permits, not quotas. They were allotted 5,000 pounds or 10,000 pounds. I bought an old wooden boat, which I still have. Hopefully I can soon get my own boat, a good boat that will stand it.
They would put 5,000 pounds or 10,000 pounds on us, and we would go out and catch for them. As far as what was going on, say there were 200,000 pounds allotted for the offshore, and in the first year of an experimental fishery, which this was, if the fishermen in general only caught 170,000 pounds of that quota, that's all you would get the next year. So the panic was on for me to help all the fishermen catch that quota to keep the quota up for them. That's what I did.
But I was told they could grant me a licence in a company name--or privately too, because I did find the crab. No one had ever fished that far for crab and found it. That's basically it.
I hope that answered your question, sir.