Evidence of meeting #41 for Fisheries and Oceans in the 41st Parliament, 2nd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was program.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Executive Manager, Pacific Halibut Management Association of British Columbia
Yes.
Liberal
Lawrence MacAulay Liberal Cardigan, PE
You're telling the committee that there are mechanisms for the recreational fishery to lease fishery from the commercial fishermen. Is that what you're telling this committee?
Executive Manager, Pacific Halibut Management Association of British Columbia
Yes. There are mechanisms in place. We've done it. We leased recreational allocation in 2004 and 2005. The recreational sector has been leasing quota from the commercial sector since, I believe, 2008 or 2009.
Liberal
Lawrence MacAulay Liberal Cardigan, PE
I'd just like you to comment on the three recommendations that you made to the committee at the end of your presentation: recreational fishery not in isolation; market fairness, and I believe you might be referring to monitoring; and allocation resolved. Just give the committee a general view of how you would analyze these three recommendations.
Executive Manager, Pacific Halibut Management Association of British Columbia
On the first one, when I say that recreational fishing, at least on the Pacific coast, cannot be considered in isolation and cannot be considered without looking at the broader context that includes commercial fishing, virtually all of the fisheries resources on Canada's Pacific coast are fully subscribed. Any time there's a change to one sector with respect to access and allocation, the other sectors are affected. I think the committee needs to bear that in mind when doing its deliberations.
With respect to the second point that market forces are increasingly bringing pressure for full catch accountability, that is one of the hallmarks of sound resource management. What we've experienced in the commercial fishery is that market forces can come to bear very quickly and very rapidly, and you can get behind the eight ball very quickly. We've seen it in other fisheries. We've been fortunate in the halibut fishery and the groundfish fisheries, as Mr. Kamp alluded to; he was involved in that. Significant changes were made in all the groundfish fisheries and introduced in 2006. You have to stay ahead of the curve, and I think B.C. needs to make sure it doesn't get left behind.
Third, there are ways to solve allocation disputes that will get government out of the middle. Government just has to set the rules, step back, and basically monitor the quota, as they do now, and where it's moving, as they do already in the commercial fisheries. It creates a win-win situation, where people will voluntarily choose and make arrangements. You'll get win-win rather than one party or the other always losing.
Conservative
Ryan Leef Conservative Yukon, YT
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Sporer. We've focused a fair bit on recreational fishing in Canada's inland waters, so it's interesting to hear information around tidal waters—and, of course, the commercial perspective that's being offered is certainly beneficial.
In your intro, you talked about 60% of the catch in the case of Pacific halibut being in the fishing lodge and charter vessel sector. Anecdotally, it makes sense to me that this would be the case. There are guides and infrastructure and generally greater season lengths and opportunities. But how do we know that number? How do we come up with 60%?
Executive Manager, Pacific Halibut Management Association of British Columbia
Just to be clear, it's 60% of the total recreational harvest of halibut. Basically, it's an estimate that DFO does based on a number of sources.
As I said, in the commercial sector, there's quite a bit of concern about whether those numbers are accurate. That's because, if they're not accurate, if you have one sector that is overharvesting, it affects everyone who's using that resource. What we need is a catch monitoring and catch reporting system that has been peer reviewed, that has been looked at by scientists and statisticians who have said that it will produce accurate numbers.
For instance, in the commercial fishery, when we moved to using cameras on our vessels—video-based camera systems and electronic monitoring systems—DFO required us to go through a peer review process and undertake a study. In comparing an observer with the camera, I think back then it cost us $30,000 to do the report and the study, and then we had to go through a peer review process.
We need to make sure that whatever those numbers are, they're accurate, if we're going to have sound resource management. Right now, there's concern in the commercial fishery—right or wrong—that the numbers are inaccurate.
Conservative
Ryan Leef Conservative Yukon, YT
Yes, I know, and that's a fair point. I think the committee fully appreciates your comments on that piece.
With those estimates—again, I appreciate that we're dealing with estimates here—what's the estimate of the total recreational catch in comparison to the commercial catch? I didn't see that in your presentation, so if it's in here, excuse me.
Executive Manager, Pacific Halibut Management Association of British Columbia
Well, like I say, now we fish to 85% of the allowable harvest. In the past few years, the total harvest for Canada has been between, say, 6.5 million and 7 million pounds, in that range. The commercial fishery is fishing to 85% of that and the recreational fishery is fishing to 15% of that. In 2013 they were below their allocation by about 300,000 pounds, and last year I think the recreational fishery was below its allocation by about 120,000 pounds, based on the estimates using the current system.
Conservative
Ryan Leef Conservative Yukon, YT
Okay, and on the total allowable harvest, the TAC, compared to the stocks, how safe is that buffer?
Executive Manager, Pacific Halibut Management Association of British Columbia
That's a big question. The science is done each year by the International Pacific Halibut Commission. There has been a treaty in place since 1923, where an international body does the science and sets the TACs for Canada and the U.S., and then each country manages its fishery respectively.
The survey numbers look very positive, but we have to be cautious. Each year the IPHC does the survey and the weight per unit effort, as they measure it, is relatively high compared to historical values. We can go back to 1995. It's looking fairly good. The commercial CPUE is quite high but, again, we have to be cautious because halibut migrate from Alaska out and down into B.C. and down the coast, and things aren't looking as good up there. They may have turned around a bit, but we have to be cautious, and we have to keep those things in mind.
Conservative
Ryan Leef Conservative Yukon, YT
Yes, I appreciate that.
I see in some of the footnotes you have that the average weight of recreationally caught halibut in British Columbia is almost 19 pounds. Do you have an indication of what the weight for commercial would be?
Executive Manager, Pacific Halibut Management Association of British Columbia
Commercial is probably in the.... We classify it as 10-20, 20-40, 40-60, and 60-plus. In terms of an average weight, I don't have one off the top of my head. I could certainly provide that for you. I just don't have it on hand, but it would be more than that.
Conservative
Ryan Leef Conservative Yukon, YT
I am curious about the halibut biology. I really don't know much about halibut biology. In terms of that average weight of 19 pounds for the recreational fishery, and in terms of the commercial fishery, what is the breeding stock weight of halibut if that's averaged out? Is there an optimal release weight?
I know inland fisheries better. We want to release the older, bigger lake trout because they are the primary breeding stock. Does it work the same way with halibut, and is that release possible? Could we have some comments on the biology end of it?
Executive Manager, Pacific Halibut Management Association of British Columbia
Yes, that's a good point. For halibut, the larger females produce more eggs, so you want to try to leave those larger females in there. The size and age of halibut have dropped on the west coast, here in Alaska and B.C., but you do want to avoid the big females if you can. A lot of people do want to target a trophy fish in the recreational fishery. Halibut can grow quite big—some of the records are 400 pounds—but it's the bigger females that are more productive in terms of egg laying.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rodney Weston
Thank you, Mr. Sporer. On behalf of the committee, I want to express our thanks to you for appearing before us today and taking the time to answer our questions.
Thank you to all.
There being no further business, the committee stands adjourned.