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CHAPTER 6 



RESEARCH AND 

 INFORMATION 



A timetable for accountable scientific 

 research must be established in order that 

 certain objectives are met and that the 

 scientific research does not become an ongo- 

 ing and self-perpetuating scientific exercise. 



THE CANADIAN FISHING COMPANY LIMITED' 



This Commission's terms of reference direct me to 

 inquire into "the provisions for conservation, manage- 

 ment, protection and development of the fish resources, 

 including the protection of their tidal and nontidal habi- 

 tat" and "optimum rates of harvesting." These are all 

 issues that imply a significant research requirement. As 

 described in other chapters, research is a basic ingredient 

 of the Department's fisheries management, enhancement, 

 and habitat protection programs. Although a great deal 

 of high quality research has been done in support of these 

 programs, our understanding of the biology of fish and 

 their relationship to their environment remains weak: this 

 is a serious impediment to improved protection and util- 

 ization of the resources. Accordingly, I have investigated 

 the Department's provisions for conducting research and 

 gathering information, and my findings are reported in 

 this chapter. 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE RESEARCH 

 ORGANIZATION 



The rich tradition of fisheries research in Canada can 

 be traced back to 1903 when the federal Commissioner of 

 Fisheries, Dr. E.E. Prince, concluded that Canada should 

 attain a position equal to other countnes in manne and 

 freshwater biological research. 



The research program on the Pacific coast began in 

 1908 with the establishment of the Pacific Biological Sta- 

 tion at Nanaimo. The early studies, often carried out by 

 volunteers, were largely descriptive. They continued, with 

 meagre financial support, until after the Second World 

 War. At that time a new chairman was appointed to the 

 Fisheries Research Board, which had been created 

 around the turn of the century. During his tenure, both 

 basic and applied research were strongly supported, and 



many current fisheries management concepts were devel- 

 oped. 



The appointment of a new chairman in the mid 1960s 

 was accompanied by a shift in emphasis. Higher priority 

 was assigned to basic or experimental research than to 

 descriptive studies in order to enhance Canada's reputa- 

 tion in fisheries science. This effort was successful, and 

 the fisheries research conducted by Canadian scientists, 

 already highly regarded, achieved even higher interna- 

 tional stature. As a consequence, however, scientists of 

 the Fisheries Research Board in Nanaimo received little 

 support for analyzing the fish stocks of the region and 

 maintaining long-term data bases. 



In retrospect, this change in emphasis was unfor- 

 tunately timed, since such information was urgently 

 needed to deal with compounding management prob- 

 lems. The Department's ability to protect and manage 

 the resources was threatened by burgeoning fishing fleets: 

 the herring fishery collapsed in the late 1960s: Canadian 

 and U.S. interceptions of each others' salmon stocks 

 expanded: new fisheries were developing: and foreign 

 fishing just outside Canadian territorial waters suddenly 

 increased, decmiating groundfish stocks important to 

 Canadian fishermen. 



Since the Fisheries Research Board was, unfortunately, 

 turning away from active acquisition of the information 

 necessary to deal with these problems, the Department's 

 administrative oflice in Vancouver had little alternative 

 but to hire its own technical support staff. It therefore 

 recruited a group of biologists in Vancouver to provide 

 data urgently required to regulate the fisheries. With cer- 

 tain notable exceptions, the Fisheries Research Board 

 .scientists became increasingly isolated from the practical 

 problems of the Department, lost their interface with the 

 industry and, consequently, were asked for advice less 

 and less frequently. 



Thus, two competing organizations provided knowl- 

 edge and information for fisheries management. In hind- 

 sight, the results were predictable: decline in the quality 

 of advice for management: competition for finances and 

 personnel; and strain among researchers. In times of 

 austerity, since immediate and often desperate needs of 

 day-to-day management had to be met, support for the 

 group doing less "relevant" research was cut. 



Other disruptive forces have also been at work. The 

 last 15 years have been a time of organizational turmoil: 

 successive waves of federal government austerity have 

 been interspersed with occasional infusions of funds; new 

 government policies favoured contracting out research 

 rather than developing in-house capabilities; and the 

 Fisheries Research Board was disbanded during the 

 1970s and its stafl" amalgamated with the Department's, 

 apparently in the hope that they would devote more 



