A VISION OF PACIFIC FISHERIES AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 21 ST CENTURY
The text of Ottawa's secret strategy to privatize Pacific fisheries
VISION 2000
THIS document explores the ten-year planning horizon for Pacific Region fisheries management and outlines our vision of the future. It is divided into three main sections. The first provides a vision of the fisheries at the beginning of the 21st century under a new policy regime and the basic policy elements which need to be in place. The second section highlights the major regional trends and outlines the component strategies we will need to pursue to reach that vision. Section Three further details the significant issues impacting Pacific Region fisheries and habitat management which spark the need for change.
The past ten years have seen remarkable changes in regulation and management and there have been important efforts to define policy for the habitat, recreation and oceans areas of the Department's mandate. However, in a number of important areas (e.g. commercial licencing), innovations take place in a piecemeal fashion without a clearly articulated policy to guide them.
In other areas (e.g. catch allocation), innovation has been stymied due to a lack of policy articulation. In short, if there is a single, most important criticism of DFO's activities on the Pacific coast, it must be the continuing lack of cohesive, consistent and forward-looking policies.
By the year 2000, it is Pacific Region's intention to have implemented a fully-integrated management policy framework, the cornerstone of which will be a coordinated series of strategies and long range plans. This policy reform is born from the need to "manage" the constantly changing physical, operational and fiscal environment rather than react to it unpreparedly as issues or crises arise.
Planning for change at least ten years in advance provides the only practical means to foster a stable climate in which we can exploit opportunities, minimize limitations and effectively deploy limited dollar and PY resources.
OVERVIEW
One of the most serious deficiencies in Pacific fisheries policy has been the lack of a consistent view of the long-term direction for the fishery.
In this overview, Pacific Region paints a picture of the fishery at the beginning of the 21st century based on a rational approach to fisheries management policy reform. This is a future which is totally consistent with the regulatory reforms recommended by the 1984 Nielsen Task Force, the 1982 Commission on Pacific Fisheries Policy and the 1981 Economic Council of Canada Report. Policy Reform Parameters
In order to ensure that this vision meets political values and economic realities, as well as making significant contribution to fulfillment of our mandate, certain objectives for policy reform have been defined. A coordinated long term Pacific Fisheries Policy must:
• result in optimal sustained exploitation rates in order to maximize biological production from stocks under the exploitation patterns established;
• result in a long-term real decrease in the commitment of government resources to Pacific fisheries management;
• be developed in consultation with the fishing industry and the public;
• result in equitable allocation arrangements which allow participants an optimum share in the benefits of resource management and development;
• result in improved stability for the commercial fishing industry;
• accommodate settlement of native land claims, including allocation of a larger proportion of fish, a greater role in resource management and enhancement, and increased participation in the commercial fisheries;
• result in increased opportunities for expansion of recreational fisheries;
• must lead to the expansion of the economic and social viability of coastal fishing communities;
• be consistent with principles of sustainable development.
COMMERCIAL SECTOR
The commercial fisheries will no longer be driven by the race for fish - they will be based on a harvesting regime which emphasizes the cost effectiveness of the total fleet, the quality of the landed product and management need to accommodate resource conservation.
The landed value of the commercial fishery will double in value by 2010, based on production and market projections.
Fishing costs will be cut by as much as half, as the number of vessels and the cost per vessel fall. The net earnings of fishermen before tax will potentially quadruple from their recent level by 2010. These profits will be injected into the economic base of fishing communities creating employment in both fishing and non-fishing related activities.
The various commercial fisheries will be managed on the basis of boat quotas or enterprise allocations. Mixed stock fishing areas will be restricted and managed by fleet quotas. Fish stocks will be allocated annually to major user groups, and among commercial sectors, based on a long-term allocation plan.
The seine fleet will have declined in numbers and will largely be concentrated in terminal fishing areas. The troll fleet will have declined and will serve the local and international market for high quality salmon. The management system for this fleet will permit trailers to fish year round.
In the 2000's, the competitive position of Canadian salmon products in overseas markets will be improved through reduced production costs, improved quality as a result of the elimination of racing for fish and provision for the year round availability of troll-caught salmon.
The costs of Pacific fisheries management will have declined to 70 percent of the level of the mid-1980s and will be totally recovered from the industry in increased fees and royalties and other user-pay or devolution arrangements by the year 2010.
NATIVE SECTOR
The fisheries of the year 2000 will accommodate an expanded participation by Native people.
Although it is unlikely that claims will be settled by the year 2000, the fisheries element of comprehensive claims will be resolved. A province-wide framework in place will increase the overall health of fisheries in B.C. and its production of wealth for all users.
Native rights will be defined in concrete terms. The Indian
The basic points of the DFO's hidden agenda
Vision 2000 is the collective work of the DFO's top managers for the Pacific Region. It starts from the assumption that the common property nature of fisheries resources is the root of all problems and must be eliminated.
When boiled down to its essentials, its basic ideas are these:
1. The fishing fleet should be reduced by at least 50 percent.
2. Mixed stock fishing areas will be restricted and managed by fleet quotas.
3. Seines will be restricted to a terminal fishery and drastically reduced in numbers. Trollers will be reduced in
numbers and operate year-round. Gillnetters are not mentioned.
4. The costs of fisheries management will be reduced by 30 percent and borne entirely by fishermen in the form of licence fees and royalties on their catches.
5. The sport fishery will quadruple in size and receive increased federal spending.
6. All fishing rights will be privatized — commercial, sport and native.
7. Overfishing is accepted as the prime threat to the resource.
8. The necessity to cut government costs is considered fundamental.
9. The fisheries component of native claims will be resolved apart from comprehensive claims, which may remain in limbo for 50 to 100 years. Native participation in the fleet will rise, although the fleet will shrink overall, and inland fisheries will increase.
10. The aquaculture sector will expand.
11. A major rationalization of the shore section will follow on the heels of the Free Trade Agreement with major job losses inevitable. Automation will increase.
12. Since a buyback is too expensive, the fleet will be reduced by cannibalization through implementation of
area licensing, quotas, royalties and enterprise allocations. Area licensing on herring is claimed as a major success.
13. The paper admits that DO will not in future have the resources to meet all demands for habitat enforcement, but forecasts increased threats to the resource from global warming, toxic waste and dams built to provide export power to the United States.
14. There will be a complete overhaul of the consultative process, including the development of professional spokesmen to sell government policy. The paper seeks a reduction in the number of groups given access to the consultation process.
8 • THE FISHERMAN / FEBRUARY 19, 1990