Fisheries committee  It's a goose egg. Zero people think it's a good idea.

Fisheries committee  I'm from the Heiltsuk Nation, and I fish out of Bella Bella, which is very remote. Last year, I sold them some tubbed prawns to help with food security in the region. If those are unavailable to me, I cannot sell them prawns because the dip I have to put my export prawns in is no

Fisheries committee  A lot of times lessors are companies, and they expect you not to tub their prawns. They will expect all the product from their lease licence. Some guys will fly under the radar to try and get a little extra money out of it. But it is expected, if you're leasing, you will sell to

Fisheries committee  I know that a couple of seasons ago I was fishing out of Pender Harbour. There is a drive-down dock there, and docks at homes. There's a plant there. The guys who leased licences from the plant had to deliver there to ensure that their bait supply kept coming, and they got $7 a p

Fisheries committee  It's extremely hard timing because we don't even know when we're going to start. They might delay the season for market reasons, which is really strange, considering that they're taking away the top market from us on the other hand.

Fisheries committee  In the prawn fishery there are live boats and there are frozen boats. I'm a frozen boat. Last year, like I said, I sold my prawn tails for what was equivalent to $15 a pound. My export frozen prawns sold for $4 a pound for mediums, $6 a pound for large, $9 a pound for XLs and $

Fisheries committee  Yes, absolutely. Having the quick freezing into water assures there's no air that's going to cause freezer burn and there's the kind of brine the prawns are in, the saltwater. They're topnotch compared to any other form of value-added processing aboard.

Fisheries committee  It's all fisheries. It's a big mix. For instance, I do not own my licence. I lease out of the PICFI program put on by the federal government. I do know owner-operators and I do know people who strictly lease. Lease costs can be very high. Not this season, but in seasons past, t

Fisheries committee  I think there are about 240 licences. I'm not sure how many operators there are, because I don't know how many do stack. Like you said, it's either 300 traps for a single licence, or 500 traps for a double licence. This fishery is very important to fisheries businesses. As a yo

Fisheries committee  Last year there might have been one hiccup just with COVID protocols about boarding vessels, but otherwise they have that right anytime.

Fisheries committee  Yes, I have no problem with anybody coming aboard and wanting to inspect my catch for quality control and compliance, but I don't want to give up tubbing, because it provides for the highest quality product. If I have to sell an inferior product to locals, what's the point? You

Fisheries committee  Straight overboard, back into its habitat....

Fisheries committee  From what I hear, but I've never followed one down.

Fisheries committee  I have 2,000 pounds' worth of tubs sitting in my hold right now, and I don't know if I'm going to be able to use them, so a timely answer would have been a real great money saver for me.

Fisheries committee  To see if a prawn is legal, we do a millimetre measurement, either off the telson, which is part of the tail, or on the spike coming off it's face. I forget what it's called. I have no interest in keeping small prawns. Why take prawns that are going to be more valuable later? I