According to the fishermen views commercial halibut licenses and quotas were not ‘Gifts”. They said that every one of those quotas is the result of historic catch by commercial fishermen who sweated, gambled their comfort and safety, and in too many cases died trying to make their living from the sea.
The recent halibut licence is a show of ignorance. In the past few years the commercial fishermen have endured an approximate 50 percent reduction of sustainable harvest catch to preserve the breeding biomass. The commercial fishermen have stayed within their fisheries mandated annual allowable catch at great personal financial cost.
Total allowable catches and quota are facts of life: we can no longer go out and cut down trees wherever and whenever we want, nor can we go dig a hole in the ground just anywhere and call it “prospecting”.
