Fishermen frustrated over halibut quota
Advisory committee suggests it’s hard to manage
“It’s hard to fish when we don’t have enough quota, and if we go to an open fishery, like wide-open, we’d probably get three years’ quota in one year, if the fish are there.” Michael MacDonald
A local fisherman is calling the individual boat quota groundfish fleets must abide by in the halibut fishery a “nightmare”.
Hardy’s Channel fisherman Lloyd Phillips spoke at the annual meeting of the Western Gulf Fishermen’s Association recently, responding to concerns raised by fellow fisherman Dennis Gaudet, who told the annual meeting he got hit with a $2,500 fine a few years ago because he overran his boat quota by 25 pounds.
“You’ve got up to 250 pounds and you’re allowed 300 pounds. The next fish comes aboard: a 75-pounder. You’re over your limit,” said Phillips in using round numbers for comparison sake.
He agreed fishermen can easily find themselves in an overrun situation.
Phillips said he was so frustrated by the way the fishery is controlled that he resigned from the PEIFA’s halibut advisory committee.
“It’s not as if we’re cheating, because there are monitors and observers and everything else,” Gaudet said.
“There should be some leniency.”
“To keep our halibut quota going five years ago we agreed to go on an ITQ (individual transferable quota),” Phillips said.
“The only problem… we all went with individual quotas. DFO is laughing at us now. Every other province can overrun and overrun, and they don’t get charged.”
The difference, he said, is whatever overrun other provinces accumulate in their halibut fishery is deducted from their global quota the following year.
Gaudet suggested a deduction of quota from individual P.E.I. fishermen the year after they go over their limit would keep the quotas in check.
Egmont MP Bobby Morrissey said the way the limited quota is distributed is not cast in stone and can be changed.
Michael MacDonald, cochairman of the PEIFA’s groundfish advisory committee, said the committee felt the small, 43-tonne halibut quota meant an individual boat quota was the only way to go. In 2017, it worked out to about 400 pounds per participating fisherman.
He’s already bracing for a drastic cut to the quota next year when the redfish fishery re-opens, resulting in a large portion of the Island’s quota being reassigned as a redfish by-catch.
“It’s hard to fish when we don’t have enough quota, and if we go to an open fishery, like wide-open, we’d probably get three years’ quota in one year, if the fish are there.”
Even with 25 licences bought out and permanently retired in 2017, MacDonald said there are still close to 900 fishermen eligible to participate in the limited fishery.