Sport Fishing Institute of
British Columbia


Halibut

In our last update, I mentioned that we would soon be meeting with MP Randy Kamp as part of his effort to reform the halibut allocation model in time for the 2012 fishing season. Owen Bird, myself and several members of the SFI Board met with Kamp for more than a hour last week to outline the impacts of the early season closure on the hundreds of businesses that support recreational halibut anglers. We were pleasantly surprised to find that Kamp was thoroughly engaged in the issue and appeared very interested in our proposal that DFO adopt a "fixed-number" allocation model that would allow the recreational season to run from March 1st through until October 31st. Our colleagues at the BC Wildlife Federation and the Sport Fishing Advisory Board also met with Kamp and proposed the same solution.

We have followed up with DFO and offered clarification on several aspects of our proposal.

While it remains to be seen whether DFO will adopt a "fixed number" allocation system in time for the 2012 fishing season, we remain cautiously optimistic that the federal government now appreciates that the current 88/12 allocation models is both unfair and unworkable.

Robert Alcock,
President

Copy of the formal presentation by SFI to Mr. Kamp.

http://www.sportfishing.bc.ca/docs/mr.% ... 0issue.pdf