88 A 1 RAMI WORK K)R C OMMIRClAl I ICINSINCi 



The most siutahlc areas lor licensing purposes \mI1 

 difler tor ditVerent s|X'cies. Hitherto, the basic licensing 

 area in this region has K-en the whole olCaiiada's F'acitic 

 coast, an area iletincJ by an accident ol political hislorv 

 and that bears little relevance to resource management 

 needs. ITie coast diH.'s divide ilscifconveniently into three 

 large areas already recogni/ed lor some management 

 purposes. I propose that these three broati zones be 

 adopted generally to gi\e an appriipriate area definition 

 to the fishing authorized under licences. 



2. Canada's Pacific amst sh<Hild be divided into three 

 broad zones for ct)riuiKrcial iicxMisin^ piiqioses: waters 

 north of C'a|K' C'aiitioiu the iasi(k' waters south of 

 Cape Caution, and the waters of tiie west coast of 

 Vancouver Island: I will refer to these respectively as 

 the north, stMith and west zones. 



These are the areas already licensed separately for roe- 

 herring fishing, and some tentative steps in this direction 

 have been taken for salmon and some minor species as 

 well. For a number of other species and stocks, allowable 

 catches are determined according to these zones. Some 

 fisheries will call for smaller designated areas within these 

 zones, and mariculture leases will apply to small areas. 

 But this general delineation of licensing zones will permit 

 regulation of the fleets in all fisheries according to areas 

 that have much more relevance to management than the 

 present coastwide licences. 



Third, whenever limited-entry licences are used to reg- 

 ulate fleets involving more than one gear type or sector, 

 separate licensing of each sector is needed to allocate the 

 catch among them and to control the capacity of the 

 fleet. These needs do not arise in the case of quota 

 licences, however. Accordingly — 



3. Limited-entry licences (the kind I propose in Chapter 

 9 for the salmon and roe-herring fisheries) should 

 specify the type of gear that the licensee is authorized 

 to use. Quota licences should not do so, except when 

 needed for conservation reasons. 



Licensing by gear is already in place for the roe-herring 

 fishery and is partially in place for the salmon fishery. I 

 propose that the gear-specific licences in smaller fisheries 

 be abolished with the introduction of quota licences. 

 However, in some cases, certain gear is prohibited for 

 conservation reasons, such as trawl gear for halibut; 

 these restrictions should be retained. 



These are the general guidelines for determining the 

 dimensions of the activity to be authorized under a 

 licence. By more closely identifying licences with relevant 

 resource management units, both the calibre of fisheries 

 management and the economics of fishing can be 

 improved. 



Article Liix>nse<l 



A person, a vessel, or both can be authorized by a 

 licence to fish: current licensing arrangements provide 

 examples of all three. The relative merits of "licensing the 

 mail" and "licensmg the boat" have been debated end- 

 lessly, and it is past time to bring some order into this 

 matter. 



First, the government should issue licences in all cases 

 to a person or company who can be identified as the 

 licensee, to whom notices can be sent, and who can be 

 held responsible for paying the fees and exercising the 

 fishing privileges in accordance with the fishing regula- 

 tions. Thus — 



4. All comnHTcial fishing licences should henceforth be 

 issued to persons or companies. 



Second, the Department must be able to identify the 

 ves.sels used by licensees, for purposes of surveillance and 

 enforcement. Hence — 



5. All licensees should be required to designate the ves- 

 sels they will use in exercising their licences, and to 

 display on their vessels commercial fishing ves.sel 

 licence plates (CFV licences) issued by the Depart- 

 ment. 



Third, some of the existing licences (such as the origi- 

 nal "B" salmon licences) require that the vessel be oper- 

 ated on the fishing grounds by a specified individual, or 

 that the licensee be physically present on it. I see no 

 justification for these restrictions. 



Nor should a licensee be compelled to own the vessel 

 designated for use under his licence. He should be free to 

 employ a vessel under charter or other temporary 

 arrangements if he chooses to do so. I therefore propose 

 that all such restrictions be eliminated. 



6. All existing requirements that the licensee own the 

 vessel he uses, or physically operate it, should be abol- 

 ished. 



Fourth, in the case of limited-entry licences (proposed 

 only for the salmon and roe-herring fisheries), the desig- 

 nated vessel must be subject to replacement regulations 

 to control expansion of fishing capacity. These controls 

 are dealt with in the next chapter. 



Licence Term, Allocation and Renewability 



As long as access to a fishery is controlled, some 

 method of allocation needs to be devised to distribute the 

 limited fishing privileges. In the past, fishermen or vessels 

 established in the fishery at the inception of a new licens- 

 ing program were "grandfathered in" in some fashion. 

 That is, those who were already involved in the fishery 

 were allocated the privileges to continue to do so. Others 

 were disqualified. Because this method minimizes dislo- 



