Let's assume for a minute that governments/DFO/etc all do exactly the same thing, no matter who is in power, for the forseeable future. It is way too hard for politians to do anything about this and be perceived as anti-anything in the media so the prudent way out is just to skirt it and try to keep the optics as nice as they can. Who really cares in downtown Toronto or Ottawa if some FN people sell sockeye on Joyce Street. We have a race-based fishery and harvesting taking place by only one group year after year, and that's how it's likely gonna remain. For a long time. So how can we manage it so at least they aren't encouraged to over-harvest what they are being allocated and grab all the cash possible by sellling on the street, exporting to the states, etc. Every extra fish = another extra $10 is a recipe for disaster.
In the old days the commmerccial guys used to haul everything to a central packing plant or two. Sometimes by means of another vessell that acted like an intermediary so they could stay on the water longer. Fairly sensible. How about a centralized spot where the FN reserve members who are entitled to X fish/year show up with a drivers licence just like a voting booth and get their fish. Maybe one spot per reserve. The opening is for x days and the members have y days to come and pick them up. Now we have some kind of count of how many fish are brought in and how many are dispensed. Who's going to do the counting? How about displaced fishermen from the commercial sector.
If nothing actually gets dispensed then voila, the whole thing has been running as a scam. If someone told me I could have my year's supply of sockeye if I just show up, I'm sure I'd be there. Oh, and yes there will be fishermen ready to buy the 'extra' fish that the band members don't need as they haul them to their cars. But now there are a lot more people involved in the illlegal sales and the more people getting a cut, the less appealiing it is to everyone and at least it isn't a few fishermen controlling the whole catch straight off the water. Illegal sales are a fact of life, from what I hear the allocation per person is extremely high in some cases and you can't reallly stop band members from selling their fish. Decreased allocation = political incorrectness = not gonna happen so let's take this as a given as well. Remember, we're just trying to make sure the fishermen aren't as easily incented to kill and kill. As far as the FN fishermen are concerned, they need to have tags from the plant for their allocation before they hit the water. Just like recreationals, they have to stamp the tag every time they catch, say, 50 fish. That way DFO comes along and they have 200 fish and their tags need to be stamped. These tags are numbered and those fish better show up at the plant. If they don't, the next year's allocation to the band is decreased by that amount. If FN fishermen are on the water with no tags, bye bye nets, charges laid, and their names and band number are recorded for the chief. Lower allocation for that band the following year and let the band sort it out how they handle the illegals on the water. Oh, and the total allocation stays the same, with proportional increases to the bands that follow the rules and to commercials. If they don't like the thought of commercials getting some of their share, politicians can easily say they have to run a responsible, accountable harvest or it will be done by those who can play by the rules. For every year they run clean, they get some of their allocation back until they hit their original quota again. Oh, and not all tags have to be for sockeye, either. On pink years, they harvest mostly pinks. Ottawa can spin the optics on this. A salmon is reallly just a salmon in Ottawa. If FN complain, a politician can point at archives where pinks were smoked by the thousands years ago and are actually pretty good when done right. After all, sockeye's value is purely commercial....
Does it already run like this? Is it too complicated? i don't know, just some thoughts and a talking point.
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Topic: So i reported this to the DFO.... (Read 15520 times)