A study released by a Canadian NGO implies that the unregulated ITQ market in British Columbia favours “armchair” fishermen and investors, rather than actual, sea-faring entrepreneurs.
The majority of fisheries in British Columbia on the Canadian Pacific Coast have been managed under a system of Individually Transferable Quotas (ITQs) since the early 1990s. The federal government has announced plans to expand ITQ markets to other Canadian provinces, as well, and US President Barack Obama has expressed interest for similar schemes on his side of the border.
The new study, however, published by Ecotrust Canada under the title “A Cautionary Tale about ITQ Fisheries”, claims that the highly unregulated ITQ system in British Columbia has both encouraged speculative buying and leasing of quota by non-active fisheries interests, such as investors, and driven up costs for working fishermen, making them less competitive against US colleagues.
The report also implies that the system has led to impaired safety for the fishermen.
“Individual transferable quotas are being heavily promoted as a solution for both conservation and the financial ills plaguing fishing fleets around the world. However, our experience in B.C. is that highly unregulated, speculative ITQ markets can create as many problems as they solve,” says Tasha Sutcliffe, Fisheries Program Manager for Ecotrust Canada.
“Under ITQ markets, working fishermen in B.C. are increasingly becoming ‘tenants’ who pay exorbitant rents to landlords, or ‘sealords,’ who own all the quota. The lucrative leasing has, in turn, driven up the cost of fishing and the price of purchasing quota, making ownership prohibitively expensive for many fishermen,” Sutcliffe adds.