119 



CHAPTER 10 



LICENSING THE SMALLER 

 COMMERCIAL nSHERIES 



dally for any fish on the Pacific coast. The controversial 

 Davis plan was introduced to control the salmon fleet in 

 1969 and a diflTerent scheme for roe-herring was initiated 

 in 1974. Since then one fishery after another has 

 expanded, overexpanded and belatedly been subjected to 

 restrictions on additional entrants through a licensing 

 program. As a result of this flurry of licensing, participa- 

 tion in all of the major fisheries is restricted to the limited 

 number of licence holders shown in Table 7-1. Eleven 

 forms of restrictive licences are now in place on the 

 Pacific coast, several with subcategories, as well as a vari- 

 ety of permits and other authorizations. 



. . .there now exists an array (of licences) 

 which is administratively most vexatious, 

 which sorely challenges the data banks and 

 competence of licensing and Held personnel 

 to implement and enforce, and which often 

 confuses and frustrates fishery participants. 



DEPARTMENT OF FISHERIES AND OCEANS' 



In Chapter 8 I outlined a framework for a comprehen- 

 sive licensing policy for commercial fisheries on the 

 Pacific coast, and in the preceding chapter I dealt with 

 the two most important of these, the salmon and roe- 

 herring fisheries. This chapter deals with the rest. They 

 depend on a wide variety of natural resources and sup- 

 port substantial economic activity with landings of $30 to 

 $35 million annually, although this is only about one- 

 quarter of the value of salmon and roe-herring. 



The recent volume and value of landings in these 

 smaller fisheries, and the relative prices of the products 

 are shown in Table 10-1. The fisheries have little in com- 

 mon. Some, like abalone and spawn-on-kelp, yield 

 extremely valuable products, while others are marginal or 

 uneconomical. New fisheries, like the geoduck fishery, 

 contrast with the very old and mature fisheries, such as 

 that based on halibut. They include groundfish, pelagic 

 fish, shellfish and Crustacea. And the technology of 

 fishing varies, as does the productivity and condition of 

 the stocks. 



Serious difficulties have arisen in managing most of 

 these fisheries, and for some of the most important the 

 problems have become acute. This is not due to inaction 

 on the part of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, 

 but rather to the lack of a coherent and effective licensing 

 policy. The review in the following pages reveals that it 

 has not provided a framework within which the industry 

 could evolve efficiently, with the result that major 

 changes are now required to overcome profound struc- 

 tural problems and to ensure that they do not recur. 



The Department has responded to rapidly changing 

 events with innovations in licensing as they appeared to 

 be needed. Only 14 years ago anyone could fish commer- 



Table 10-1 Volume and landed value of the major com- 

 mercial species in British Columbia^ 



' The figures in this table do not correspond in all cases to the figures in 

 the te.xt because of different sources of data. 

 " Preliminary data from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. 

 ' The low figure is for pinks, the high for chinook. 

 '' Includes skate, sturgeon, eulachons, smelt. 

 ' Includes non-food fish, octopus, salmon roe and other fish. 



The specific recommendations in this chapter for 

 improving licensing arrangements for these smaller 

 fisheries follow from the framework for commercial 

 licensing policy outlined in Chapters 7 and 8. There I 

 explained the inherent weakness of limited-entry licences 

 and the superiority of quota licences as means of allocat- 

 ing fishing privileges and promoting orderly fleet devel- 

 opment. In Chapter 9 I have recommended that limited- 



