Tag Archives: commercial fishing rights

North Coast leaders celebrate report’s focus on independent fishers

North coast leaders are calling the sweeping recommendations of a Parliamentary committee a win for independent fishers. The all-party Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans released its study on the state of the West Coast fisheries May 7, recommending numerous changes to the Fisheries Act that aim is to lower financial barriers for those wanting to enter the profession, and limiting the number of licences held by any single group.,,, Bill C-68, adopted in June of last year, paved the way for an overhaul of the Fisheries Act, whereby the ministry considers not only ecology in its decisions, but the social and economic impacts on the communities dependant on the fishery. >click to read<19:39

Senate Bill 1309 – There’s a compelling case for more transparency in California fisheries.

Figuring out who owns the right to fish commercially on the Pacific Coast is typically easy: In fisheries managed by the states of Alaska, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington, as well as the federal government, all you have to do is ask. California is an outlier. Here, the names of individuals and companies that own the right to fish in state-managed fisheries are confidential.,,, Through my investigation I found the wording of the confidentiality provision hadn’t been changed since 1933, even though at that time, there were no fishing rights to own. Times have changed, but the law hasn’t. Now commercial fishing rights, or limited-entry permits as they’re known in the industry, are worth more than $100 million and bought and sold on an open market. Consumers – as well as fishermen – don’t have the right to know who owns what in state-managed fisheries. >click to read<16:26

City of Monterey looking to buy up commercial fishing rights

The city of Monterey wants to control nearly a million pounds of groundfish in Monterey Bay.  At Tuesday’s City Council meeting, councilors looked at purchasing the fishing rights to 880,000 pounds of fish from Monterey native Giuseppe Pennisi. Pennisi is about to put his federally allotted fishing quota on the market and City Manager Mike McCarthy said the city is ready to pay $583,000 to buy the rights. “If the city is unable it is unlikely any other local organization will be able to buy it,” McCarthy said. The fear is an outside organization from Oregon or Washington would come in and buy the stock, pushing out local fishermen. click here to read the story 11:23