(ft) Ml INSINC; AND HKKr DKVhLOPMhNI I'OIKY 

 lABI .b. 7- 1 Summary of licences for commercial fisheries 



Source: Department of Fisheries and Oceans. 



Four Basic Forms of Licences 



Four basic types of licences can be identified in the 

 present array. These prototypes must be distinguished 

 because much of what I propose in later chapters 

 involves reassigning the most appropriate form of licens- 

 ing to each major fishery. 



First are unrestricted licences, which do not limit entry 

 to the fishery. This traditional form is now almost extinct, 

 remaining only in certain minor and underutilized fisher- 

 ies regulated under selected species licences described in 

 Qiapter 10. However, the number of licences that are 

 eligible to engage in a number of other fisheries, such as 

 food herring, crabs and hake, is so large in relation to the 

 number of present participants that access is effectively 

 unrestricted in these cases also. 



Second are limited-entry licences, which limit the num- 

 ber of participants. All of our major fisheries are now 

 regulated under this kind of licensing. Under this system 

 the authorized catch of each licensee is unspecified so, 

 although the number of persons or vessels with licences is 

 fixed, all the incentives to wastefully invest in excess 

 fishing power remain. Tlie success of these licensing sys- 

 tems in countering these incentives hinge on their ability 

 to prevent additional investment in fishing capacity, 

 through more or less arbitrary vessel replacement rules 

 and controls on vessel improvement. 



Third are quota licences, which assign a specified catch 

 to each licensee. Such licences are now in place for the 

 abalone and spawn-on-kelp fisheries. The outstanding 

 advantage of this form is that it eliminates the competi- 

 tive scramble for a share of the catch and so eliminates 

 incentives to invest in excess fishing capacity. By doing 

 so, it also eliminates the need for much of the detailed 

 regulation of the fleets and of fishing. 



The fourth are what I call mariculture leases, which 

 assign to a licensee (or lessee) specific privileges and obli- 

 gations over a defined area, so that within the area the 

 common-property problem is eliminated altogether. The 

 Province of British Columbia's oyster leases take this 

 form, and the federal spawn-on-kelp licences have some 

 of the same characteristics. Such arrangements not only 

 encourage eflficient harvesting, but also provide the con- 

 ditions for private culture, enhancement, management 

 and protection offish. 



OBJECTIVES OF UCENSING POUCY 



Licensing policy on the Pacific coast has evolved 

 quickly in recent years in response to urgent problems 

 associated with particular fisheries and accumulating 

 experience. The result is that today it lacks coherence and 

 consistency, particularly in the provisions relating to such 

 matters as the appurtenancy of licences, the fee structure, 



