Facilitating Change; The Evolution of a BC commercial

fishery

Wes Erikson 4th Generation BC Fisherman

Seafood Enhancement Association of British Columbia

Erikson.w@gmail.com

WHY ARE WE HERE?

  The British Columbia groundfish fishery has evolved over the last 25 years and has been completely reformed. How did we get there and what are the results

The old Days   Anyone could go commercial fishing - all you needed was a

boat and a strong back.   Managers and fishermen began to worry about species

abundance and an unlimited number of participants   Something needed to be done   1971 the government created fishing licenses and

effectively limited the number of fishing vessels

Controlling Harvests Managers attempted to control

fishermen's behavior   Gear

  Time (Seasons)   Species   Vessel size restriction   Limited Entry   M.P.A’s

We can navigate around any rule. We are natural problem solvers

  Six days of fishing   435 vessels   Poor quality   Low price   Fish discarded

In the 1980’s, the BC halibut fishery needed to change

•  And lives were lost

•  individual quotas (catch shares) was the option we decided to further explore.

FEARS  Job loss  Corporate concentration  Armchair fishermen  Coastal communities  Non-fishermen would buy quota   Privatization of public resource  And many, many more

• Hail requirements

• Port monitoring

• Improved Enforcement

Not one of the mentioned fears materialized

Halibut fishery moved to a catch share fishery in 1991 and with it the beginning of monitoring

  Limited understanding of actual catch, only landings

 Unreported catch.  No data on most non-target species

 Habitat protection ?

One fishery was not enough…

Many species are encountered

MPA’s and discarded catch difficult to monitor

And this fact did not go unnoticed

The next step in our evolution:

We needed to integration the various fisheries

•  It began with a problem (unreported catch)

•  We addressed the problem by designing a process

This was no easy task

7 fishing sectors participated in the process known as the Commercial Industry Caucus (CIC)

• Sablefish • Lingcod • Halibut • Dogfish • Trawl • Rockfish (inside) • Rockfish (outside)

The task seemed impossible

• No trust • No chair • Consensus process • 7 management plans • No faith

We met for 2 to 3 days every month for a year and still had not agreed on a chair When we reported our progress to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans…….

Department of Fisheries and Oceans Ultimatum

1. Account for all catch 2. Prove it !

.and if we could not do it,..they would!!

“Incentive”

We were motivated, so how did we begin to make progress

 Selected an independent professional facilitator  Developed guiding principles

Then we began negotiating and eventually determined how to share fish This had to work for the smallest boat (5m) in the fleet as well as the largest (50m)

BC’s Integrated Groundfish Fishery

  Pilot Integration April 2006   7 fisheries, all with various catches needed to

combine and become fully accountable.   Over 70 species to manage   Up to 5 management areas per species   Transferable among four gear types   All sets video taped (or observed) and audited

INTEGRATED GROUNDFISH MANAGEMENT   1 management plan   Catch shares for all

species and vessels   each vessel accountable

for all catch – whether retained or released

  Trading of quotas between

vessels and fisheries

  100% dockside and at-sea monitoring   At-sea data provides information on total catch mortality (retained and released)

Logbooks are audited against video footage and then compared to the offload

There is one logbook for all vessels

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?

–  Markets –  Managers –  Resource –  Safety –  Selectivity –  Enforcement –  Improved cooperation among

fishermen

–  Fishermen’s logbooks are being use in science and management (we can trust the data now)

How do we facilitate change

Define the objectives Identify participants Begin a consultative process With enough “incentive” any problem can be

solved Every fishery will have a different design to

address specific problems and concerns With enough “incentive” any problem can be

solved

PROCESS 1.  Involve the stakeholders (Involvement is the key to

commitment. Without involvement, there is no commitment)

2.  Impose a deadline (the work expands to fill the time allocated for its completion), but be reasonable

3.  Allow the process to determine the roadmap to the objectives

4.  Re-visit the objectives 5.  Don’t try to engineer the roadmap (stick to the

objectives) 6.  Trust the process. The process is as important as

the outcome (the right answer too soon is the wrong answer)

  *only a fishermen can talk to a fishermen

  In British Columbia, the IQ program removed competition among fishermen

  Able to concentrate on maximizing IQ’s potential (markets and price)

  Individual accountability = Individual responsibility (collective responsibility did not work). If everyone is responsible, no one is responsible

  Transferability was essential in combining sectors into a multispecies fishery

Conclusions   We now have the ability to retain all species

caught and account for all species discarded   ITQ program can address any issue(s) an

Industry or Community wants   B.C. fishermen now lead by example in

conservation   Catch shares and monitoring can eliminate

the illegal fishing activities   We have become “Accountable, Sustainable

and Responsible”

Photo courtesy of IPHC

The three most important components of this fishery are 1.  Individual Accountability 2.  Transferability 3.  Monitoring

This is the best managed fishery in the world…of course you should buy my fish.

There is no guarantee of success with the formula I have outlined.   However, I do know that without these elements in my fishery, there was a guarantee for failure.   Many of us now, will survive and thrive because the system gives us the flexibility to adjust, take measured risks, and gather the support to execute a new plan. This has allowed for much better working relationships with everyone involved in the industry – i.e. government management, science, processors, buyers, other fishermen, ENGOs, communities,  etc. We will continue to evolve and mature over time because this system allows us the flexibility to be innovative.

RBM’s offer the ultimate stakeholder agreement: Fish has a value when its alive. Before it was only worth money

dead

Always remember “It’s hard to be green when you are in the red”

Thank You