RATIONALIZING THE SALMON AND ROE-HERRING FISHERIES 109 



and the Department, I propose that it be continued, with 

 certain modifications. This innovation reduces crowding 

 on the fishing grounds during the short season of inten- 

 sive fishing, it facilitates on-line management of the fleet 

 and, by reducing the threat of excessive fishing power 

 being brought to bear on particular stocks, enables better 

 resource utilization. Moreover, it reduces the fuel and 

 other costs that are otherwise associated with the whole 

 fleet ranging over the entire coast. 



For the salmon fishery, area licensing has not been 

 attempted apart from the two-area arrangement for troll 

 fishing. But a comprehensive area licensing system has 

 been widely debated for some time and was di.scussed at 

 length in this Commission's proceedings.^ Undoubtedly, 

 benefits could be realized from area licensing for salmon 

 in the form of fleet manageability, resource utilization 

 and conservation, and fuel and other efficiencies. For rea- 

 sons explained in the last chapter, the whole coast is too 

 large an area to regulate as a single unit, and it is treated 

 as such only because of an accident of political history. 



Some fishermen object to area licensing on grounds 

 that it would adversely affect their catch. On average at 

 least, this would not happen because, if anything, the 

 improved manageability of the fleet would enable greater 

 catches than otherwise. However, individual catches 

 might be more variable, and the immediate imposition of 

 area licensing in this fishery would disrupt long- 

 established fishing patterns: the salmon fleet has, in large 

 part, become adapted to unrestricted mobility over the 

 coast, and many vesselowners have invested heavily in 

 engine power and vessel design suitable for this kind of 

 operation. For these reasons I refrained from making a 

 final recommendation on this matter in my Preliminary 

 Report, noting that I would deal with it in my final report 

 after receiving further testimony. 



I have now concluded that the benefits of area licens- 

 ing for salmon warrant its introduction: the problem is 

 how to make the adjustment. I therefore propose that the 

 area licensing already applied in the roe-herring fishery 

 be continued and developed further, and that a transition 

 to a corresponding system be made in the salmon fishery 

 through the following specific measures. 



9. Tlie three-area licensing system for the roe-herring 

 fishery should be continued >^ith certain niodificatioas: 



i) Instead of one-year-at-a-tiine choice of area, each 

 licensee should be required in 1983 to select the 

 north, south or west zone in which to exercise his 

 licence for the duration of its temi. 



ii) All new licences issued should apply to only one 

 zone. 



10. The government should declare now that before the 

 1986 fishing season, all salmon licensees will be 



required to select one of the three zones in which his 

 licence will appl> for the remainder of its term. A year 

 before the zonal licences are issued, the Department 

 should begin to accept elections of zones fi-om licen- 

 sees to provide plent\ of time for adjustments and 

 changes as the distribution of the fleet among zones 

 emerges. 



The next three years will provide time to improve earn- 

 ings through fleet-reduction measures described below 

 and for vesselowners to plan for modified of>erations 

 where necessary. 



11. No restrictions, apart from the vessel replacement 

 rules proposed below, should prevent a licensee in 

 either fisherv from acquiring from another licensee a 

 licence to fish in another zone. 



The opportunity to acquire a licence to fish in more 

 than one zone will enable fishermen to broaden their 

 fishing opportunities, reduce any risk of greater variabil- 

 ity in catch resulting from area licensing, and at the same 

 time reduce the number of vessels in the licensed fleet. 



12. I*rovisions should also be made for separate licensing 

 of small or pocket areas that offer suitable opportuni- 

 ties for small numbers of vessels. 



A provision of this kind is needed to enable proper 

 utilization of roe-herring and salmon where small runs 

 recurrent in bays or inlets cannot be opened to a large 

 fleet. Arrangements that would authorize a small number 

 of vessels will improve utilization. Indeed, in a few recent 

 cases, informal arrangements have been made on the 

 fishing grounds to permit a small number of vessels from 

 too large a roe-herring fleet to fish a small stock. While it 

 is important to provide legal authority now for such 

 arrangements, I do not expect them to be invoked for a 

 very significant part of the harvest for the next few years 

 at least. 



Royalties The proposed initial royalty rates for 

 salmon are set out in Table 8-1. The rate of KK per 

 pound for the higher-valued species and 5C per pound for 

 other species are the same as those I proposed in my 

 Preliminary Report. 



In view of the government's and participants' reactions 

 to my earlier proposals, an additional comment about the 

 impact of royalties on the financial position of fishermen 

 seems necessarv'. The royalty proposal is coupled with a 

 proposal for a substantial fleet-reduction program that 

 could be implemented immediately. With a reduced fleet 

 and higher catches per vessel, royalties could be paid out 

 of the additional earnings without lowering fishermen's 

 incomes. 



However, the Minister recently announced that he 

 intended to proceed with royalties but postpone fleet 



