Monday, November 21, 2011

DFO is willing to buyout licenses...just on the wrong coast

Yet another article on east coast lobster license buyouts. This is relevant because DFO on the west coast has steadfastedly refused to buyout the non-selective, aging, uneconomic gillnet fleet.

The article here describes DFO paying $18 million to retire some lobster licenses. Why the discrepancy on different coasts?
The gillnetters on the north coast of BC have 650 or so licenses with the marktet price of a license being advertised at around $60,000. Probably most license holders would accept less just to get some dollars out of a mostly useless investment.
So 650 x 60k= $39 million. Small price to pay to ensure truly sustainable fishery management on our coast.

1 comment:

Kim Ploughman said...

You wonder why the dispency by DFO in lobster buy-outs from coast to coast; and we on the east coast wonder why DFO would not agree to an inquiry into fishery mismanagement on our coast - which resulted in a groundfish shutdown since 1992 and little or no cod recovery since then - and yet there is the Cohen Inquiry into your depleted salmon stocks We have a double standard in the way DFO manages our fishery from coast to coast and that in itself deserves an inquiry! Our provinces should be sharing information and supporting each otheragainst DFO -the NL-BC Alliance?