Fisheries Or Oceans - Taxation on Perception

You may not be interested in the fishing industry per say, but consistent with the article on CO2 emissions and global warming, you might be interested in where your tax dollars are going and why. If you take a look at the video presented on www.pncima.org and the pictures on  Images for Gwaii Haanas you will see an abundance of fish and wildlife and scenic beauty as it presently exists. And yet you are funding more and more bureaucratic science initiatives for more and more protection. I have spent 67 years living in most places on the BC coast, including the Queen Charlotte's, central coast, and many of the mainland inlets and most if not all species including, sea lions, seals, whales, birds, and porpoises are in greater abundance than they were 67 years ago. The exception is salmon. So why spend our tax dollars on the creation of endless protection? It is the reallocation of funding of fisheries for the food industry, in favor of the academic ecological management industry.

Historically, the Department of Fisheries was, in fact, the Department Of Fisheries; it is now the Department of Oceans. The focus of this bureaucratic body is now an endless process of protection in collaboration with NGO-perceived critical ocean environmental issues. What was once a lucrative commercial fishery is about a third of what it was as little as two decades ago.    

Much of the Fisheries and Ocean budget is misdirected at inappropriate protection, rather than enhancing and protecting the viability of the fishing industry. The general perception and influences of protective organizations, which includes government agencies such as Parks Canada, and the many environmental NGO's, not to mention international agreements signed and sealed by governments, is that the fisheries and eco systems of our oceans are in peril. Though I don't doubt that there are areas of concern, it is not the case in the oceans or continental shelf of British Columbia. The exception might be the provincial and federal government supported introduction of invasive species, such as Atlantic salmon and their associated parasites, pollution, and viruses, in the open pen fish farm industry. Many of the problems associated with declining salmon are also relevant to watershed degradation and a lack of protection from sources other than commercial fishing.

The media presents the public with environmental issues that don't interfere with their owners or sponsors desire to exploit our resources through privatization. The reason for government support for privatization is government's own inability to control the financial waste and inefficiency of government and bureaucratic management.

The Federal Fisheries and Ocean budget is directed at meetings with the many consultative boards, (I believe there are over 50) and the presenting of justification for more and more of less and less access to fishing opportunity through the constant increase of protection, as if somehow the fishing industry is responsible for a decline, which in many cases doesn't exist. We are putting species on the endangered species list while there is no funding for appropriate stock assessment and there is no real data to back up decline, or abundance.

The Commercial Fishing Industry has had to deal with more and more regulations, paperwork and restrictions, effectively preventing fishers from access to many traditional areas, as well as some 164 rockfish protected areas, and seven major habitat protected areas, yet the beat goes on. There is a void in assessing abundance created by introduction of previous regulations, and protection initiatives. The unnecessary protectionism continues endlessly without real purpose. Zoning can open the door to access for industry such as private offshore oil interests, wind farm areas, ignoring the environmental impact of run of the river privatized projects. This is your tax dollars at work. See below.

Rockfish Conservation Areas Booklet 

Endeavour Hydrothermal Vents 

Bowie Seamount

Musquash Estuary

Basin Head

The Gully

Eastport

Ironically the next Halibut Advisory Board meeting, as will likely be similar in most consultative processes, is primarily presentations on proposed additional protective zoning, particularly the Pacific North Coast Marine Integrated Management Area, www.pncima.org/ and Gwaii Haanas National Park www.vancouverisland.com/parks/?id=399 The perception is that the process allows for input, while it does little other than satisfy the requirement of governments to consult, while implementing more restrictions.