THE SPORT nSHERY 193 



nuisance. The governments should provide simple and 

 convenient licensing arrangements, and by engaging the 

 same agents they may realize certain economies as well. 



3. The governments of Canada and British Columbia 

 should cooperate in integrating the saltwater and the 

 freshwater sportfishing licences, so that both can be 

 acquired through a single document, which all agents 

 should be authorized to issue. 



The most expedient system would appear to be a stamp 

 for each of the two fisheries, either or both of which may 

 be aflixed to a single sportfishing licence document. I 

 understand that officials of the two governments have 

 already examined the feasibility of joint arrangements, 

 and while no unmanageable technical difficulties seem to 

 exist, the financial arrangements have not been made. 



In the longer term, the feasibility of extending the 

 licensing system to cover younger fishermen should be 

 examined. The present exemption for those under 16 is 

 presumably in place to avoid burdening children finan- 

 cially, but an alternative is to require them to hold 

 licences issued at nominal or no cost. This would bring 

 all fishermen within the framework of the regulatory sys- 

 tem and provide more comprehensive data. Any such 

 change would obviously be more suitable if made in con- 

 junction with a conforming change in provincial freshwa- 

 ter licensing, I therefore propose — 



4. The governments of Canada and British Columbia 

 should examine the feasibilitj' of extending the 

 sportfishing liceasing system to include younger 

 fishermen perhaps under licences issued at nominal or 

 no cost. 



This change could have the incidental benefit of engen- 

 dering greater appreciation among young people of 

 sportfishing opportunities and the need for resource con- 

 servation. It would also deter the alleged practice among 

 some sport fishermen of attributing their catches to 

 accompanying children to circumvent bag limits. 



Licence Fees 



The current saltwater sportfishing licence fees are very 

 low, and fall well short of the value of the fish caught by 

 average sport fishermen. Indeed, the annual $5 fee for 

 residents is much less than the value of an average 

 salmon. So, in order to bring the fees closer to the value 

 of the resources used, and to support my proposals for a 

 greater commitment to a sportfishing information and 

 management system, I recommend that — 



5. Saltwater sportfishing licence fees should be doubled. 



This change will bring the saltwater fees roughly into 

 line with the province's freshwater fees, though there 

 remain differences among categories, and these should be 



reviewed. In Chapter 5 I propose that half of the 

 sportfishing licence revenue be directed toward the 

 enhancement effort and that the remainder support the 

 expanded sportfishing management and information pro- 

 gram I recommend below. 



In addition to raising more revenue, higher fees will 

 tend to dampen the growth in numbers of sport fishermen 

 by deterring those who put only a marginal value on the 

 sport. They will thereby assist in preserving the quality of 

 sportfishing opportunities. 



Some people object to the idea of higher charges for 

 sportfishing privileges on grounds that they would 

 impinge most heavily on the poor. This is a worthy con- 

 cern, and it is for this reason that special rates are often 

 provided in licensing systems for old-age pensioners and 

 others. But sportfishing licence fees are generally rather 

 trivial in comparison with the other substantial expendi- 

 tures that most anglers incur in order to sportfish, so the 

 argument that an increased fee is unfair is not very con- 

 vincing. Moreover, sportsmen must recognize that the 

 fish they take are very valuable, and they could alterna- 

 tively yield significant value in the commercial fishery. 

 Sportfishing opp)ort unities on the Pacific coast are excep- 

 tionally attractive, and it is reasonable for those who use 

 the resources to pay for the privilege, as my terms of 

 reference imply they should. 



Punchcards, Tags and Annual Bag Limits 



As I explained earlier in this chapter and elsewhere in 

 this report, the need to constrain fishing pressure on the 

 Chinook and coho stocks that support most sportfishing is 

 urgent. The proposals set out here are designed to do so 

 without eroding further the quality of sportfishing oppor- 

 tunities. 



The present licence includes a punchcard which limits 

 the bearer to an annual catch of 30 chinook salmon. This 

 arrangement has several shortcomings: 



i) The best available information, some of which was 

 referred to earlier, suggests that an annual bag limit 

 of 30 chinook salmon will have very little impact on 

 the total catch because so few fishermen catch 

 significantly more than this. 



ii) It requires six)rt fishermen to distinguish between the 

 species of salmon, but many casual fishermen are 

 probably incapable of doing so. 



iii) It does not apply to coho salmon, but recent infor- 

 mation suggests that many coho stocks, like chinook, 

 need urgent conservation. 



iv) By applying to chinook salmon only, it bears more 

 heavily on sport fishermen in those areas where chi- 

 nook salmon predominate. 



