Tag Archives: Sonia Strobel

Fishing communities welcome B.C. intention to reform licensing and quotas

Editor’s note: Fishing was one of Cortes Island’s major industries. The museum records the names of 28 boats and 40 individuals active during the 1970’s. Government regulations changed that. According to  the study SET ADRIFT: THE PLIGHT OF BRITISH COLUMBIA’S FISHING COMMUNITIES, 71% of the people working in the province’s commercial fishing industry lost their jobs. “What remains in the commercial fishery is not a vibrant and healthy fleet, but a fleet ravaged by consolidation.” DFO licensing practises “diverted the fish away from the populous small-boat fleet and delivered the resource into the hands of a venture capitalist…”

By Hope Lompe,  Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Fishing communities, harvesters and advocates are welcoming British Columbia’s intention to work with the federal government to reform the purchase system for fish licences and quotas for B.C.’s commercial fishing industry.

Continue reading Fishing communities welcome B.C. intention to reform licensing and quotas

Feds must fix unfair West Coast fishing rules: House committee (Cortes, Quadra, CR data added)

Editor’s Note: There was once a thriving fishing industry on Cortes Island. Chris Kendel is still based here, but catches his fish up north on the Taku River. Meanwhile Campbell River’s Highline Fish Company sells some of its catch at the Mansons Landing dock. There are still fishing boats in the Discovery Harbour Marina, owned by the Wei Wai Kum First Nation, and some Campbell River residents buy their fish at the dock.  Quadra Island Fisheries’ boats ‘fish the rugged coast of Northern Vancouver Island, West  Coast Vancouver Island, and the mainland inlets.The Tantrum 1, also based on Quadra Island, ‘trolls our coasts from Northern California all the way to the Alaskan border.

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Federal inaction means West Coast harvesters still flounder with unfair fishing regulations, says a parliamentary committee.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada faces a wave of criticism in a recent report by the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans (FOPO), which reiterated a call to equalize fishing policy on the coasts.

For the second time in five years, the committee is pushing the fisheries department (DFO) to make changes so only Canadian fish harvesters with actual “boots on deck” of a boat can own fishing licences or quota on the West Coast.

Continue reading Feds must fix unfair West Coast fishing rules: House committee (Cortes, Quadra, CR data added)

DFO raids seafood company, possibly over federal agency’s own paperwork error

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Federal fisheries officers descended in force to raid a sustainable seafood company in Vancouver Friday afternoon, seizing the catch of an Indigenous fish harvester and alleging it was illegally caught.

But enforcement officers are taking an unnecessary and heavy-handed approach to what seems to be a bureaucratic error caused at least in part by the Department of Fisheries’ (DFO) own licensing branch, said Sonia Strobel, CEO of Skipper Otto community-supported fishery. 

Continue reading DFO raids seafood company, possibly over federal agency’s own paperwork error

Fish fight over West Coast licences and quota resurfaces at federal committee

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

A parliamentary committee investigating whether corporations and foreign owners have a stranglehold on Canadian fisheries is experiencing a serious case of deja vu. 

Witnesses speaking about the dire straits faced by commercial fish harvesters and coastal communities on the West Coast are raising the same issues first presented to the Standing Committee of Fisheries and Oceans (FOPO) starting in 2018

Continue reading Fish fight over West Coast licences and quota resurfaces at federal committee

BC spot prawn fishers celebrate federal minister’s regulatory decision

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Independent prawn harvesters are celebrating after Fisheries and Oceans Canada modified its proposed new guidelines for the commercial fishing sector. 

Harvesters can now continue to use whatever size containers they have been to freeze prawn tails at sea for the 2022 spring season before having to transition to a maximum 24-ounce transparent plastic tub next year, Fisheries Minister Joyce Murray announced Monday. 

Continue reading BC spot prawn fishers celebrate federal minister’s regulatory decision