87 



CHAPTERS 



A FRAMEWORK FOR 

 COMMERQAL LICENSING 



The single most important thing to a fisher- 

 man is his hcense. . . . Fishermen are keenly 

 aware of the importance of licensing and seek 

 to see it controlled. 



PACIFIC COAST SALMON SEINERS ASSOCIATION' 



In this chapter I propose a general licensing policy for 

 the commercial fisheries, capable of meeting the objec- 

 tives outlined in the preceding chapter. 1 have already 

 emphasized the importance of this component of fisheries 

 policy, which governs access to the resources and aflfects 

 the way they are utilized. 



The commercial fisheries account for the heaviest 

 demands on the stocks, and the government's failure to 

 properly regulate access to the resources has resulted in 

 overexpanded fishing capacity, severe problems of 

 resource management and poor economic performance. 

 Because present licensing arrangements are so crude and 

 inconsistent, and such major (and inevitably difficult) 

 changes are necessary, this chapter sets out in some detail 

 a coherent licensing framework suitable for modem 

 fisheries. 



THE STRUCTURE OF FISHING PRIVILEGES 



Some of the fundamental questions to be dealt with in 

 formulating licensing policy include the activity to be 

 licensed, the article to be licensed, the method of allocat- 

 ing licences, the term of licences, transferability, and 

 appropriate fee structures. Each of these is dealt with 

 here. 



The following three chapters address specific licensing 

 provisions for particular fisheries. There I propose sub- 

 stantially revised limited-entry hcences for the salmon 

 and roe-herring fisheries, quota licences for most of the 

 other fisheries, and mahculture leases for certain shellfish 

 aquaculture operations and ocean ranching. These gen- 

 eral licensing forms, described briefly in the preceding 

 chapter, call for different provisions outlined below. 



Scope of Activity Licensed 



The first question in the design of a licensing system is 

 what the licence is to authorize the licensee to do. Ordi- 

 narily, a fishing licence conveys the privilege to the 

 holder to engage in fishing: but what he may fish, where, 

 and how are important and varying conditions. Orderly 

 licensing calls for some general principles to be followed 

 in this matter. 



The main consideration in deciding the scope of the 

 activity to be licensed should be the needs of resource 

 management: so fisheries must be categorized by species, 

 stocks or areas that have relevance for management pur- 

 poses. And since harvest regulation is a central part of 

 management, fishing privileges should be identified, as 

 far as possible, with resource management units. From a 

 management viewpoint, the most obvious distinctions are 

 to be made among species of fish, each of which has 

 unique characteristics regarding stock size, jwtential 

 \ields and susceptibility to fishing eflTort. Hence, my first 

 guideline for licensing: 



L Commercial fishing licences should be issued for each 

 species of fish separately unless compelling technical 

 or managerial reasons exist for authorizing fishing for 

 two or nM)re species under a single licence. 



Substantial progress has been made in this during the 

 last dozen years. A commercial fishing licence initially 

 authorized the holder to fish for everything; but first 

 salmon, then most of the other major species, were peeled 

 off for separate licensing. The rationale is obvious. We 

 should not license as large a fleet for the small abalone 

 fishery as we do for salmon, and the appropriate terms 

 and conditions of the licences will be different also. 



We are still left with one type of licence (the residual 

 species "C" licence) that is a catch-all for a variety of 

 minor species. The present groundfish trawl ("T' licence) 

 also authorizes fishing for several species, some of which 

 are fished separately and so should be licensed sepa- 

 rately. Others are harvested together in varying propor- 

 tions, and so would have to be exceptions to the general 

 rule of separate licences for separate species. Mariculture 

 leases might authorize management and harvesting of 

 more than one species in the licensed area, but each 

 would be dealt with in the supporting management plan. 



Second, for the purpose of management it is necessary 

 to recognize separate stocks of the same species, but it is 

 virtually impossible, as a practical matter, to authorize 

 someone to harvest one stock but not another: the stocks 

 migrate and mingle, and the fish are not distinguishable. 

 The practical alternative is to license fishing by areas, 

 with the areas delineated in such a way as to be relevant, 

 however imperfectly, to separate fish stocks. 



