BCBusiness

SEPTEMBER 2017 BCBUSINESS 41 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 of proper sources and references" when it came to quota lease prices and practices. Others, like Art Davidson, a Saanich-based sherman and president of the BC Longline Fishermen's Associa- tion, countered that though the ITQ sys- tem works well for people who own all or much of the quota they sh, it also acts an investment vehicle that unfairly dis- tributes wealth away from the shermen who bring the resource to market. But according to Je„ Grout, the DFO's Paci‡ic region resource manager for salmon, government isn't forcing ITQs down the throats of commercial sher- men. Grout says his department informs its ‡ishery management decisions by seeking input from area harvest com- mittees consisting of shermen on the ground. The DFO has only implemented ITQs in the salmon sector on a season-by- season basis in select seine and troll sh- eries, and Grout admits they have faced sti„ opposition from the gillnet ˆeet. "There will always be independent ‡ishermen who have different ideas, but we think ITQs have been e„ective in terms of managing the ˆeets and assur- ing that they sh within allocations," he says. "It gives us more certainty in terms of catch." As for the cost of leasing and buying quota, Grout says the DFO doesn't collect data on private transactions between shermen. For Pinkerton, that points to a big problem: with ITQs, the agency has unleashed a sharecropping of the ocean that is squeezing shermen. I f the UFAWU's Thorkelson represents the little guy—the deckhands, boat captains and ‡ish plant workers— Rob Morley, Can‡isco's vice-presi- dent of production and corporate development, symbolizes what the UFAWU, Pinkerton and their allies say is another side of the West Coast shery: monopolizing and increasingly dominant. But Morley says the facts prove otherwise. In June 2016, before the fed- eral Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans, he testied that Cansco buys sh from a ˆeet of 860 vessels and owns eight processing facilities but owns just 4 per cent of all salmon licences, as well as 21 per cent of groundsh quota, 15 per cent of hake quota, 3 per cent of halibut quota and 2 per cent of sablesh quota. Morley concluded that "contrary to misinformed reports, the licens- ing policies in B.C. have not resulted in increasing concentration or control by Can‡isco and the companies we have merged with." His testimony doesn't paint a complete picture: the company has a 50 per cent stake in an undisclosed number of shing vessels up and down the coast that gives Cansco exclusive access to buy the catch. Although the last cannery closed nearly two years ago under Cansco's watch, the bright spot in B.C.'s salmon sector is the growing demand for fresh- frozen llets. Here the province has an advantage over Alaska because it's closer to North American markets, Morley says. By eliminating the race-to-sh mentality, ITQs better serve consumers, he believes. "ITQs make sense because it spreads out the ‡ishing effort over a longer period of time and enables us to get the best high-quality product to market in a timely manner," Morley explains from Cansco's headquarters in Richmond. But Pinkerton and Thorkelson also say there are misconceptions about com- mercial shermen being overly competi- tive and prone to exploiting a stock to near extinction, as befell the East Coast cod shery. For decades the West Coast industry self-organized through what was known as a layup system, whereby captains would keep their boats tied up at the dock for several days after landing their catch, giving the rest of the ˆeet a chance to take its share. This approach died out in the 1970s, some say due to a lack of government support. ITQs eventually lled that void, but this framework for ‡isheries manage- ment has taken heat elsewhere. Early on, New Zealand was more enthusiastic than other nations in adopting the market- based approach to quotas. In a 2016 paper, Fiona McCormack, an anthro- pologist at the University of Waikato in Hamilton, noted that New Zealand has been globally recognized for its e¦cient and sustainable sheries management, largely based on its wholesale adoption of ITQs. But this adulation masks some unsettling side effects, McCormack argued, namely the "inequitable dis- tribution of shing rights, the relative SOURCE: T. Buck Suzuki Environmental Foundation and Ecotrust Canada, "Assessing Alternatives for Sustainable Fisheries in B.C." Prices adjusted to 2015 dollar value In the B.C. halibut fishery, which operates under the individual transferable quota (ITQ) management system, the cost to buy a pound of quota has more than doubled this decade

• Cover