Port Hardy Marine Resource Management Society

~Sustaining the living sea~

Honorable Representatives, Mayors, and Council/Board Members,

I am writing you and your organization concerning a matter that is
fundamental to the survival of many B.C. coastal communities, and
critical to the weil being of scores more - the future of the fishing
industry.

We on the coast have watched the crisis of the east coast fisheries and
fishing communities. We have also seen considerabie transition on our
west coast, as canneries moved south and fleet make-up evolved.
Through all this we have maintained one of the world’s best commercial
fisheries and coastal community living standards.

Over the last decade, however, the discord and complacency within much
of the fishing industry has resulted in the gradual implementation of
fishery policies that do not adequately address:

the socio-economics of coastal communities
the equitable distribution of a public resource
common sense

Among many examples of these ills is the case where “armchair”
fishermen are currently able to pay an annual license fee of a few dollars
to the resource owner (the taxpayer, through the government) then tum
around and lease the license out for hundreds of thousands of dollars as
though it were a private commodity.

Another critical issue is the long standing attempt by DFO to reduce the
fleet size strictly to make it less expensive to manage. This approach
would create a small number of extremely wealthy individuals who
would be far less likely to live out on the coast, rather than a large
number who earn a decent living and currently live on the coast.

JAN TO 1994

P.O. Box 901, Port Hardy, B.C. VON 2P0 Lip: af Bo e: 604-949-6668 Fax: 604-949-2617
i
i