I always knew I would work as hard as I could to make my living from the sea. Fishing isn't just a living; it's a way of life, and it's a profession I was born to do.
In the last 30 years, the Pacific coast fishing fleets have been decimated. Where we once would see boats as far as the eye could see, it is not uncommon to go days without seeing another fishing boat. Some will say that our fishing fleets were rationalized due to the conservation issue—too many boats catching too few fish. Others will point to the sports priority and the move toward tourism-based businesses, or even to the region-backed fish farms, which dropped the price of wild salmon and drove the largest processor to get the salmon as cheap as possible, as they own the majority of the seine fleet.
At any rate, we had our fair share of enemies in the early 1990s. My family relied on salmon for the majority of our income, but we also prosecuted several other fisheries. As salmon fishing collapsed under the Mifflin plan, we were diverse enough to switch to dogfish and survive the initial storm when most did not. In 1998 my father and I purchased a retired packer and converted it back into what it once was—a longliner. Our vessel had already fished a lifetime. It was built in Prince Rupert in 1927, and was built to fish halibut. Our salmon trawler was retired, as it wasn't big enough. Dogfish is a volume fishery, requiring us to catch large amounts to be profitable.
We lived under extreme duress, constantly fearing that every year would be our last. As the world changed, the need to be accountable for our bycatch became a reality. The fisheries on the west coast are in many ways the gold standard. Every fish we catch in the hook-and-line groundfishery has to be recorded and accounted for. Although we can discard juvenile fish, we have 100% retention of all rockfish. This has led to very specialized fishing. The days of getting bait, ice, grub and fuel and going out fishing without knowing exactly what you were doing is a thing of the past. Everything we catch is on camera, and is reviewed every trip to ensure accuracy in our reporting.
This meant that our vessel, which up to this point had brought in just dogfish, had to bring in all fish. Even though that meant we now were able to land our catch of more valuable species, which should have made our business more profitable, that wasn't the case. We had to find and lease quota for the fish we caught. We didn't have the access to capital to lease quota ourselves at the beginning of the season. The company we sold dogfish to tried to find access, and struggled mightily and failed. After that, we were forced to find another company to deal with the bycatch.
The end result of this was that our fleet of 15 to 20 active dogfish vessels, mostly smaller boats, couldn't make it work. With fishers in Massachusetts ramping up their dogfish fishery at the same time, that spelled the end of our fishery in 2011.
We shifted our efforts to halibut. As we were the top dogfish boat for 10 years, our reputation enabled us to stay in business. We also got access to a sablefish licence, which we leased for three years until, worried about access, once again we borrowed heavily, partnered with our processor, and bought a sablefish licence. Even though we'd improved our situation, working 20-hour days and fishing 200 days a year, it didn't become more profitable; now, being leveraged to the max, we were too vulnerable. We had managed to get our foot in the door buying licences, but we still didn't own any quota.
With the price of quota being what it is, there is no way for us to ever buy quota in any amount. With quota holders holding all the cards, we are facing the loss of our business. Both the fishermen and the processors who don't own quota are being blackmailed by the armchair investors. If they don't get maximum price in the market, they simply threaten to pull their quota the coming year.
The major flaw in this management plan is the fact that we have failed to protect the fishers who harvest the resource. In Alaska and on the east coast, they have owner-operator. In order to get our fisheries back on track, I believe we must work toward this goal. This will not be easy. It will take some time. But after talking to fishermen from the east coast and comparing notes, I am not afraid to say that I was envious to hear about their loan programs and their thriving boat-building industries as compared with our coast, where the only new boats, with a few exceptions, are the factory trawlers brought in from European countries, which are now over here. Does that make sense?
As we go into the future, what will our B.C. fisheries look like with fewer and fewer entrants? As of right now, finding young people to come into the workplace is getting harder and harder. They know that they have almost no chance of buying their own boat or licences. Who wants to do such tough mental and physical work if it's not worth your while or if you know there's no chance of advancing into the captain's chair?
It doesn't have to be this way. By forcing fishers to sell at the end of their careers and keeping the fish in the hands of the fishermen, rather than some nameless, faceless corporation, we will ensure not just the health of our seas but also give fishermen the responsibility of being the stewards of the resource, protecting their livelihood.
Food security is becoming more and more important, and with the world facing extreme challenges with climate change and ocean acidification, we should be looking for better management of a public resource rather than letting it be sold to the highest bidder. We should look to our past for the road to the future and learn from their mistakes.
Please help us get our industry back on the right track to ensure that future generations can have access not just to delicious seafood, but also to thrive.