Fleet Reduction in British Columbia's Commercial Salmon Fisheries: 1996-1998

摘要

In 1996 Canada implemented the Mifflin Plan which was designed to reduce the size of the commercial salmon fleet in British Columbia. The Mifflin Plan redefined limited entry salmon licenses with respect to fishing area and gear, allowed stacking of the salmon licenses, and spent C$80 million to purchase and retire the licenses (but not vessels). In 1998 Canada implemented another program to purchase and retire limited entry salmon licenses (but not vessels). Funding for these programs was provided by the federal government. This paper describes and discusses these programs. Details are provided on the reasons for the fleet reduction programs, the details of the license redefinition and stacking rules, the rules used to decide which licenses to buy and the prices to pay for them, and the numbers of licenses removed from the fishery. A discussion section reviews some issues raised by these programs.