Fisheries committee  It's true. I grew up in a town with 500 fishing boats in Denmark. Today, there are about 30 left, and fishing is no longer an important aspect. I think it has major consequences for the whole community. I would like to refer to Alert Bay, which was a first nation town that was totally dependent on fisheries, if we look back.

Fisheries committee  Yes.

Fisheries committee  That's a difficult question, because I don't see why it's not compatible. I'm sorry. I can't see why.

Fisheries committee  There were big problems back in the eighties and nineties with overcapacity in many parts of the world. DFO instigated policies that led to fleet reduction. In doing that, it favoured the large-scale, easy-to-manage fleets. This is one reason why we have lost the small-scale fleets on the west coast.

Fisheries committee  Thank you, Mr. Arnold. Yes, I did mention that for the shrimp trawl fishery in B.C., there is a very low, arbitrary bycatch level. Because of that low bycatch level, there's also a requirement of 100% observers in these fisheries. Only the big boats can afford that. This is an impediment where you have a policy that favours the large-scale fisheries at the cost of the small-scale fisheries.

Fisheries committee  I think this was a really important report, and if those 20 recommendations were followed, it would change the situation drastically.

Fisheries committee  Yes, the fisheries on the west coast, to a very large degree, have become.... I'm sorry, but I can't find the word. It's not possible for fishers on the west coast who rely on leasing quotas to make a living. It's not possible to make enough to maintain the fisheries and pay living wages to their crews.

Fisheries committee  I can give you one example. That's for species that do not have quota licences. On the west coast, that's the shrimp trawl fishery, where the effort is very low compared to what it could be. The reason for this is that DFO, in the name of conservation, has a bycatch level for species of eulachon of four tonnes, which corresponds to less than 0.01% of that important species.

Fisheries committee  No, I can't answer that.

Fisheries committee  That is very often the case, and there are a number of cases where fishers, after the season, have owed money to the licence-holder or owner.

Fisheries committee  DFO is supposed to manage people, absolutely. DFO on the west coast has a very strong mandate about conservation and seems to have much less emphasis on the socio-economic aspects of the fisheries. The balance is off.

Fisheries committee  None.

Fisheries committee  I think the most crucial one is the one that talks about the owner-operator requirement for B.C., the made-in-B.C. solution.

Fisheries committee  You can look at how it has been done on the east coast. You could have a period, say seven years or 10 years, for disinvestment. That would be one way of doing it. The key factor is to get this started. For over 30 years, this has been discussed. Things have just grown worse and worse.

Fisheries committee  Mr. Chair and members, thank you for the opportunity to address the committee. I am a Canadian citizen born in Denmark, where I worked for a decade for the Danish DFO. I spent 10 years with an international research organization, followed by 20 years as a professor at UBC. I'm a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada specializing in ecosystem-based management, notably the combination of ecological, social and economic trade-offs that so often are your headache in FOPO.