Codfathersa国际传媒檚 Seafood Market owner, Jonathan Crofts is working hard to change the way the federal government sells fishing licenses and quotas.

Crofts is working alongside fishermen and charities, and is speaking with Members of Parliament to make a real change to preserve the future generation of fishermen.

sa国际传媒淭o sum it up we want good clean and fair (fish),sa国际传媒� said Crofts.

Crofts explained that currently most commercial fishing licenses are owned by large fish distributors or second or third generation fishermen. Right now it is costly for most fishermen to sell their fish to fishmongers such as Crofts and end up selling their fish to larger companies that is often exported from Canada.

sa国际传媒淚t needs to be sustainable, nutritious and tasty, nothing harmful, no antibiotics and clean for the environment. We need clean fish as well and it needs to be fair,sa国际传媒� said Crofts.

Fraser MacDonald, a first-generation commercial fisherman for the last 14 years who works out of False Creel Fishermensa国际传媒檚 Wharf and Port Hardy, B.C. addressed the alongside other fishers to speak to them about the regulation of West Coast Fisheries.

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The group of fishers (not including Crofts on Feb. 5) approached the committee to study the regulation of West Coast fisheries to review the regulatory structure for Individual Fishing Quotas (ITQ) and the individual transferable quota structure. As they believe specifically the way they are transferred has created a commodity out of the licensing itself to investors and corporate interests.

sa国际传媒淲e have more opportunity to gain more value out of our fish. The way that a lot of bigger seafood buyers are set up is that it is a volume market-based system so that they can make a margin on buying and selling it. If we could challenge the types of processing and selling it to fisheries we are going to be putting the focus on adding value and maintaining value in fish. We will be able to keep local, reduce our carbon footprint and increase the value all the way down the stream from the fishmongers to the good and healthy fish,sa国际传媒� said MacDonald.

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The fishermen are not asking for an immediate change to the way the ITQs are handed out but rather a long timeline where changes could be scheduled and implemented over the next 10 to 12 years.

In the meeting, Joy Thorkelson, president of United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union reported that fishermensa国际传媒檚 earnings are trending down while the The Fish, Food and Allied Workers Unionsa国际传媒檚 (FFAW) incomes are increasing. She cited that the difference is the added costs B.C. fishermen bear, 80 per cent of the landed value in ITQ fisheries is taken out of their pockets. Money that remains in the pockets of East Coast fishermen.

sa国际传媒淚 have worked for the union for 40 years and Isa国际传媒檝e seen many changes in my career. Isa国际传媒檓 old. In fact, the majority of people in the B.C. fishing industry are old. The industry was very good to participants and we were able to make a great living, so thatsa国际传媒檚 why we all stayed. Now itsa国际传媒檚 too late to leave with economic dignity,sa国际传媒� said Thorkelson in the Feb. 5 meeting.

Both MacDonald and Crofts said that fishing commercially has become a career path of retirees who can afford it and is having trouble attracting a younger generation due to the costs.

sa国际传媒淚ts becoming increasingly difficult,sa国际传媒� said Crofts.

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