Pooling reopens barkley sound to seiners

摘要

Frozen out of the West Coast of Vancouver Island Barkley Sound sockeye fishery for a decade over fears about their efficiency and possible conflicts with the sport fleet, South Coast B.C. seiners decided they had to do something to get back their share of the total allowable catch. With a predicted 1 million fish coming back, this year they built on a "pooling" experiment started last year in Juan de Fuca Strait. As in Alaska's Chignik fishery they chose to act cooperatively instead of competing for the catch, designating only a handful of vessels to operate instead of a wide-open fishery. Seiners met earlier this year and brought a proposal to Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) to conduct a limited pool-type flshery where only selected vessels would fish in closely monitored conditions to guarantee that catch limits were adhered to in Barkley Sound. DFO agreed, and a commercial seine fishery started June 18 in Barkley Sound, clinching a historic change. "The seiners hadn't taken a fish there in 10 years," says Lloyd Webb, executive director of the Fishing Vessel Owners of B.C. "We hadn't caught a fish there in June for 20 years."