I don't think it's oversight. The issue begins with capacity on the lower end and data collection and science. To have proper management plans that the enforcement officer is enforcing, we have to have proper science and data to create those management plans. When we don't even have that part and are limited in capacity in the actual management plan, then people are going to enforce a management plan that barely gets put out in time for the fishery. The manager has no capacity to bring in enforcement officers and say, “These are a few conditions of licence we'd like to enforce this year and why”, and so they pull from this large list of conditions. Maybe it's that your bait cup screws should be on rather than the clips on, and they find that in the condition of licence.
I'm a northern crab fisherman. A condition of licence that we have is that our traps can only soak for 18 days. There is no biological reason for that, but the reason is to prevent people from having their gear for too long. There is a possibility if there is very heavy crab they may cannibalize themselves, but the main issue is littering. Last year a partner of mine was caught in bad weather and he let his gear soak for an additional eight days and then got the gear when the weather calmed down, and he was charged more than $40,000, I believe, for that offence.
They want to do their job, and it's nothing against enforcement. I don't know where the disconnect truly lies, but I believe it's in communication and building better data and science to steer that management plan in a better direction to communicate with enforcement.