Fisheries committee  Well, for example, in the past four years the average number of licence sales to Canadians has been about 260,000 tidal water recreational licences. That's about 0.74% of the Canadian population. With respect to the increase in interest in halibut, if you look at the DFO national survey on recreational angling in Canada for 2005 and for 2010, I think you will see that in 2005 the total of fishing for days fished was about 9.5% of the total days fished, and it was about 11% in 2010, so there has been a slight increase.

Fisheries committee  The allocation framework was implemented in 2003, when the recreational sector was provided the 12% catch ceiling allocation. There actually were years, in 2004 and 2005, when they didn't use their allocation and we actually leased that fish from them to use in the commercial fishery.

Fisheries committee  It's basically based on an estimate using the available information they have. As I note in the report, in the commercial fishery we have concerns in that if we're going to have sustainable resource management, we need accurate numbers on total removals from all sectors, not just the recreational fishery but the commercial fishery as well.

Fisheries committee  —by an independent validator.

Fisheries committee  There's no dockside monitoring. There is a creel survey program, but that program has been cut back, to my understanding, in recent years, at least for some sampling. They use that, and they also will do.... It's based mainly on surveys. Fishing lodges and charters in some areas turn in logbooks.

Fisheries committee  We're actually at some historic lows in the TAC. For example, over the past 10 years, the commercial TAC has declined by probably just over 50%. Having said that, halibut are managed internationally by the International Pacific Halibut Commission on the west coast. They do the science.

Fisheries committee  That is a significant concern of our members.

Fisheries committee  Sure. I generally look at four-year periods when I'm trying to do any work, simply because the commercial fishery here uses four years as well because the dominant sockeye cycle comes every four years. If you look at footnote 2 on page 5 of my document, comparing the 1991-94 period to the 2010-13 period, it shows that total B.C. tidal water recreational licence sales declined by 29% over the 20-year period there.

Fisheries committee  Thank you. As mentioned, my name is Chris Sporer. I'm executive manager of the Pacific Halibut Management Association of B.C., an organization representing commercial halibut vessel owners on Canada's Pacific coast. We're pleased to be able to make a presentation to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans as part of its study on recreational fishing in Canada.