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Halibut allocation topic at AGM

Members of the Courtenay and District Fish and Game Protective Association will be attending their first general meeting of 2011 Jan. 3 at 7:30 p.m. with earnest.

Members of the Courtenay and District Fish and Game Protective Association will be attending their first general meeting of 2011 Jan. 3 at 7:30 p.m. with earnest.

They are concerned about the impact of the halibut allocation policy on recreational fishing and have invited special guests to explain the situation.

Ted Brookman is the Region 1 B.C. Wildlife Federation (BCWF) president. 

He is the lead BCWF person for the federation on the Halibut Coalition that is working to achieve a reasonable sharing of halibut between the commercial fishery and the recreational fishery. He will be updating members on what the coalition is planning to do to gain a fairer share of halibut.

Wayne Harding is a retired Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) technologist who specialized in ground fish. Harding sits on the South Coast Sport Fish Advisory Board and is a senior member of the BCWF Tidal Waters Committee.

He will present an overview of how it happened that 436 commercial halibut fishermen were gifted 88 per cent of B.C.’s available halibut and 100,000 sports anglers were limited to only 12 per cent of the sustainable resource.

Paul Ricard is a retired South Island school principal who is a lifelong sports angler. Since retiring, he has been active in the Sport Fishing Advisory Board (SFAB) and the BCWF Tidal Waters Committee and has also served as a commissioner on the Pacific Salmon Commission for six years.

He will be providing an update on where the stalled process sits at present and what needs to be done to get the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans and the present government to change the presently unfair halibut allocation policy.

Anyone wanting more information about the meeting can contact Bryan Allen at 250-338-0091.

— Courtenay and District Fish and Game Protective

Association