Good morning, everybody, and thank you very much for having me here today.
My name is Melissa Collier, and I am a commercial fisherman based out of Courtenay, B.C. I am here today to represent my fishing family, and, more specifically, my husband Joel Collier, who is a fourth-generation fisherman. Joel is actively harvesting prawns as we speak, as was I until a few days ago.
Prawn season is the busiest time of year for my family, especially because we earn the majority of our annual income from this fishery, so the fact that I am speaking here today is a testament to how important I find this issue to be. I have spent the last several days trying to prepare for this meeting, listening to the past sessions as much as I could, while balancing the demands of our business and, more importantly, my little ones, who missed their mom while she was gone. From what I have seen, you have heard, and will continue to hear, from individuals significantly more knowledgeable on this topic than I am, but I would like to take the opportunity to share some of our story and speak to what we see and hear out on the water.
My husband and I fish for spot prawns, salmon by troll, and swimming scallops on our 42-foot vessel, the Lisa Jess. We are owner-operators. Even though we own our licence and quota, much like what Ms. Strobel said in a previous session, we also lease additional quota or licences when needed to make specific fisheries economically viable.
Being owner-operators allows us to decide what to fish and whom to sell to, and to negotiate a fair price. Through many years of effort and developing relationships, most of our catch stays here in Canada. We have worked very hard to maintain full autonomy, even when it has made our path significantly more challenging. It's hard, and in many cases impossible, for our little family business to compete with bigger enterprises. Our expenses are higher to operate. The work is massive for only two people, and we just can't match prices.
We do it because it means a lot to us, knowing that each person or business in our community that supports us gets direct value from our seafood, whether that be all the businesses that supported us to get out on the water in the first place, the two young men we employ, or all those who help us get our seafood to its final destination. It's everything from the local freight company to the fishmonger to the chef.
We also take a lot of pride in producing the highest-quality seafood we can. We love to be able to share it with our friends, family, communities, and fellow Canadians. Feeding people the amazing, sustainably caught seafood from our pristine B.C. waters is what it's all about.
Every year, it gets harder to be a fish harvester, especially in the last four to five years. It seems as if there has been a big shift in the fishing industry, and barriers like never before are constantly being thrown in our path. Every year, we have to work harder than the last just to make this life work. With the current trends in our coastal communities, it will likely only get worse.
I've complied a list of observations in the hope that they frame the issue, and I can elaborate on any of these during the question period, if there is interest.
We are seeing fewer and fewer owner-operators participating in the industry. We are seeing fewer boats tied up at the dock. We are watching multi-generational fishing families unable to pass their business down to their children. We have watched the fleet grey, which should be an opportunity for new fishers to enter and existing fishers to build their fishing businesses. Yet, due to overinflated prices, the fact that the licences are married, or being outbid by larger entities and corporations, it's nearly impossible for independent harvesters to purchase these licences.
We have personally witnessed vessels and licences being used as physical assets and investments, being bought by individuals who, themselves, have no plans to fish. We see fishers our own age leaving the industry at an alarming rate, many of whom are multi-generational fishers. We have watched lease prices driven up so high that there is a financial incentive for owners to lease instead of fish. We are watching as the food security of our country is being put at risk, as the access to our fishing resources is being taken away from local fishers. We have seen drastic changes to our coastal communities and a reduction of services available to fishers.
If you had asked us five years ago what we felt about the future of the fishing industry, we would have been optimistic. Fishing is a very hard life, but it is worth it, and we saw a future. Our future is now uncertain. We honestly don't know whether we can remain in this industry long enough to pass it down to our children the way it was passed down to us. If fishers like us who are so heavily invested in the fishing industry are already having such a hard time, how are new entrants supposed to make it work? What is an industry without a next generation to continue it?
The fishing industry is struggling for so many reasons. I will not say that all of these observations are a direct result of the current licensing system, but a system that allows anyone to own licences and quota exacerbates the problem. Access to and the income generated from fishing continue to be concentrated in the hands of a few, instead of flowing to the men and women actually doing the work, and the coastal communities in which they live and work. For those of us who do own and operate, we can't possibly keep up. We will be slowly squeezed out as fishing becomes less economically viable.
Thank you very much.
