According to media report fishermen are in deeply emotional sense of betrayal after the announcement of the closure of recreational halibut fishery on Sunday while the commercial fishery remains open to catch hundreds of thousands of pounds of halibut before the end of the year. It is an allocation issue not a conservation issue. The recreational fishing industry, which is an important industry to coastal B.C., has been wounded and trashed by a fisheries department that is biased towards commercial fisheries and uncaring about citizen rights dating back to the Magna Carta.
It is part of the 12 per cent allocation of the halibut quota to over 100,000 recreational anglers, mostly Canadian plus valuable tourists. In the meantime the remaining 88 per cent of the allocation has been given to 436 commercial halibut quota holders of which only 156 go out and actually fish.
News report says that the balances of the quota holders simply lease out the quotas and collect royalty cheques. It smacks of a very successful commercial fishery lobby in the halls of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the parliamentary offices of politicians in Ottawa.
