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CHAPTER 22 



OVERVIEW 



There is no quick and easy solution to Pacilic 

 Coast fisheries management problems which 

 have been decades in the making .... Any 

 long-term plan to address those challenges 

 will be resisted by the inertia of tradition and 

 by the combative attitudes forged in years of 

 conflict among competing users of the fishery 

 resource. But. there is enormous incentive for 

 extraordinary effort to transcend the prob- 

 lems of the past. 



ASSOCIATION OF PROFESSIONAL BIOLOGISl^ 

 OF BRITISH COLUMBIA' 



In the first chapter of this report I emphasized the over- 

 riding need for a coherent policy for the Pacific fisheries, 

 a framework based on clear objectives that would elimi- 

 nate the ambiguities, contradictions and confusion of the 

 past. I also outlined some general objectives for fisheries 

 policy, consistent with this Commission's terms of refer- 

 ence, to provide a broad framework for designing policy 

 reform. The subsequent chapters of this lengthy report 

 have attempted to unravel the present management 

 arrangements, analyze the problems that must be 

 resolved and suggest improvements. 



My recommendations are numerous, and they range 

 from minor suggestions to proposals for fundamental 

 changes in public policy. The complexity of the issues 

 and the difficulty of dealing with them in an orderly 

 sequence tend to cloud their relationship to an overall 

 policy framework. So in this concluding chapter I refer 

 back to the general policy objectives I articulated at the 

 outset to put the major thrust of my recommendations 

 into that perspective. 



Resource Consenatioii 



The constitutional responsibility of the federal govern- 

 ment for fisheries is clear, and its first obligation is to 

 ensure that the resources are properly conserved, man- 

 aged and developed. These are the subjects dealt with in 

 Part II. The first requirement for management is knowl- 

 edge about the resources themselves; that is, the stocks of 

 fish, the habitat on which they depend and the pressures 

 ihey are subjected to. I have reviewed the condition of 



the stocks in Chapter 2. and found that herring, halibut, 

 most groundfish and minor species are either in good 

 condition or are recovering from past overfishing. 

 Salmon, by far the most valuable, are more problematic. 

 Some stocks are healthy and others are recovering; but in 

 the aggregate, our salmon remain well below their histori- 

 cal levels of abundance. The immediate constraint on 

 rehabilitating most of the depressed stocks is inadequate 

 spawning escapements, a consequence of excessive 

 fishing. Ultimately, however, the capacity to produce 

 salmon is governed by the quality of the habitat. 



Protecting and managing fish habitat is an especially 

 demanding responsibility on the Pacific coast because 

 salmon depend on estuaries, rivers and streams that are 

 subject to innumerable disturbances and pollution from 

 industrial activities throughout the western watersheds. 

 But our present knowledge about critical fish habitats, 

 their potential productive capacities and the impact of 

 other activities on them is seriously deficient. This 

 impedes not only fisheries management but also effective 

 planning of other resource development. Because of the 

 interest of both governments in this information, I have 

 recommended in Chapter 3 a major inventor}' of the 

 freshwater and estuarial fish habitats in British Columbia, 

 sponsored jointly by the federal and provincial govern- 

 ments. This will enable long-term objectives to be set for 

 the fisheries; it will provide the essential information for 

 integrated resource management planning; and it will 

 help to identify opportunities for enhancement. I also 

 propose more systematic procedures for approving devel- 

 opment projects that affect fish habitat and means of 

 ensuring that habitat losses will be mitigated or compen- 

 sated. 



Fisheries management, particularly in the dominant 

 salmon and herring fisheries, leaves much scope for 

 improvement. In Chapter 4 I have recommended new 

 arrangements for collecting the needed information, for- 

 mulating plans, managing fishing during the season, and 

 regulariy evaluating performance in consultation with the 

 participants in the fisheries. Effective fisheries manage- 

 ment depends on continuing scientific research, and 

 specific needs are identified in Chapter 6. 



With the approaching end of the first phase of the Sal- 

 monid Enhancement Program, plans must be made for 

 the future. In Chapter 5 I reviewed the experience so far, 

 noting, on the one hand, the high expectations for meet- 

 ing fish production targets and, on the other hand, the 

 uncertainties surrounding these predictions, the impact 

 that enhanced stocks will have on wild stocks, the out- 

 come of lake enrichment projects, and the control of 

 commercial fishing fleets, all of which threaten the ulti- 

 mate success of the program. I recommend that the pro- 

 gram be continued on a more modest scale under a 

 modified intergovernmental agreement, with less empha- 



