TL: THE TRAWL FLEET : Introduction to BC Fishing
SO: by David Ellis (GP)
DT: not dated
Keywords: canada fisheries oceans fish bc facts greenpeace
gp /

In terms of the number of vessels, trawlers compose roughly 2%
of the B.C. fishing fleet, excluding herring punts (1).

In terms of the landed value (including hake taken by or
delivered to foreign vessels within the 200 mile limit)
trawlers account for about 4.5 % of the B.C. fishery (2).
In terms of total volume (including hake taken by or delivered
to foreign vessels within the 200 mile limit) trawlers account
for 48% of the B.C. fishery (3). But in total, only about 46,000
MT, or 31% of this fish is processed in Canada (3a).

Annually in B.C., trawlers take about 50,000 MT (4) of "ground
fish" (mostly with bottom trawls) and about 96,000 MT (4) of
hake (all with mid water trawls). They are prevented from taking
some "ground fish" by law entirely (such as halibut (5) must
release all salmon caught (6), and are restricted to 8.75% of
the black cod catch (7). (An undetermined amount of Chinook
salmon is taken by hake trawlers off B.C.; (8) in Alaska and
Pacific States, this salmon by-catch is political issue among
salmon trollers). Some ground fish are also taken by non-trawl
gear; on average, 57% of the dogfish, 25% of the lingcod, and 6%
of the rock fish are taken by long line or trap gear (9).

In 1976 the DFO introduced "limited entry" for the trawlers and
limited the total to 142 licenses. On average about 120 (my
estimate) of these licenses fish every year; about half of these
are considered "big boats" and half are considered "small boats"
(under 50 feet) (10). The small vessels are more often owner
operated; the larger vessels are usually owned or controlled by
the major processors (11). Because of this size difference,
there is a split between the big and small trawlers.

Few B.C. trawlers freeze their catch at sea, for is illegal to
fillet fish at sea in B.C. (12) (there are some exceptions for
non trawl vessels, and some vessels freeze in blocks). Most
deliver on a regular basis to the processors who owns/controls
the majority interest in them ("49%ers") (13).

B.C. has 17 vessels over 25 m, which are by far the largest
vessels in the B.C. fishing fleet, but only about ten "stern
trawlers".

A 1986 DFO study (14) concluded that only 29 of the trawl
vessels held no other licenses (mostly bigger boats not suitable
for any other fisheries). Fully 74% of the trawl fleet were
licensed for other fisheries as well as trawling, mostly salmon
seining; in 1986, salmon (mostly taken by seine gear) accounted
for 42% of the value of the catch of the trawl fleet. Herring
seining and packing are also important side-fisheries for many
trawlers.

II. THE TRAWL PEOPLE

An average of 5 people (including captain) (15) work on each
trawler, making the 600 trawl fishermen of the total of 14,500
active fishermen (16) 4.1% of all B.C. fishermen.

63% of the trawl fleet fished for 6 months or more in 1989 (17).

In terms of processing employment, The Fisheries Association of
B.C. (1988) estimates that a total of 8,000 people or 4,700 man
years (seasonal employment factor) are employed in the fish
processing sector. I can find no breakdown of "trawl fish
processing jobs", but I know that BC Packers likes to
concentrate on trawl fish outside of salmon season (I believe
they like to see the fleet on hake in the summer - delivering to
foreign processors - for this reason). Fillet and freezing about
40,000 MT of ground fish employs many (remember, only about 31%
of B.C. ground fish including hake, is processed in B.C.) but
unlike salmon and herring, there has never been a rule barring
U.S. delivery of ground fish caught by Canadian vessels, and
much is landed in Blaine, etc. (where it is poorly documented as
to species composition, further aggravating accurate stock
assessment (18).

The larger trawlers fish round the clock in virtually any
weather; duties are setting and hauling the net and sorting
(discarding) and icing the catch (19). Net and equipment repair
occupy much time because of heavy wear on the seabed (20).
The captains are now using "electronic" charts which pinpoint
their location much more accurately than in the past; thus with
"high tech" they are able to pinpoint and continuously fish
especially rich "edges" or bottom contours, where fish
congregate (21).

Basic politics

Trawlers are represented politically by:

A) the Deep Sea Trawlers Association (22), President Doug March.
Doug is a very amiable former fishermen without formal training,
a popular "president for life" among the trawlers. He uses
"strong arm tactics" such as bringing large groups of trawlers
into closed meetings. Recently, the DSTA has hired a consultant,
Meyer Resources, an ex-DFO man. The DSTA speaks through the
Commercial Fishing Industry Council (in my opinion an "old boys
club" which meets about once a months (23).

B) The UFAWU (24) Trawl Committee. John Radosevic (leader on
trawl issues, even if not elected). In the annual Dec. trawl
conference Dave Cannell, Frank Fritpatrick and Dave Cletus were
made co-chairs. The Jack Nichol of the UFAWU sits on (and
informally controls) the Commercial Fishing Industry Council,
and stonewalled an appeal I and others made there for observers
on trawlers. DFO's "ground fish trawl advisory committee"
(membership enclosed) is appointed by DFO and includes the John
Radosevic).

C) The Fisheries Association. Rob Morley and Mike Hunter. Rob
was in the external affairs division of DFO for many years and
was considered a tough and successful negotiator for Canada in
the Canada/U.S. Salmon Treaty (signed 1985). He now advises Doug
March, who doesn't take his advice. The Fisheries Council also
sits on the Commercial Fishing Industry Council, where it
pretends to take a "neutral" position (in fact it has a strong
seine and trawl bias, the sectors I believe the processors
own/control (25). Mike Hunter sits on the Pacific Area Regional
Council (PARK) called by DFO the "senior fisheries advisory
body". This is an appointed DFO advisory committee.

Most of B.C.'s fishermen are either salmon trollers (1655 boats,
@ 2.2 men/boat) or salmon gill netters (2317 boats, @ 1.5
men/boat). (26). Trollers generally don't like trawlers, who
they consider destructive, but gill netters are also net
fishermen who are easily drawn into coalitions with draggers.
Seiners (536 boats, @ 5 men/boat), as we see above, often trawl
or know trawlers, and very readily join coalitions with
trawlers. An organization sitting on the sidelines is the
Fishing Vessel Owners Association, about 100 seiner captains,
most of them "49%ers". Executive director of the FVOA Phil Eby
is professionally trained.

Perceived Competition for groundfish

In terms of target species, there is little real competition
between trawl and hook and line. The most valuable fish they all
legally take, black cod, now has a set allocation formula (see
above). Trawlers claim to have "lost" the black cod allocation
to the trap and hook and line fleets, but this is not really
true as black cod has only recently increased in value, and has
only recently been targeted by trawlers. Exceptions are dogfish,
some rock fish species, and lingcod, and this takes explaining
(27). Because all of these species are very low in value
compared to salmon, halibut, and black cod, they are only taken
by hook and line fishermen in low-profit off-season fisheries
(on average, 57% of the dogfish, 25% of the lingcod, and 6% of
the rock fish are taken by long line or trap gear). But in the
eyes of the trawlers the potential catching power of so many
off-season salmon vessels has a potential to take much ground
fish, and so the trawlers have responded with fear and sought
"ground fish allocation", or a cap on hook and line catches of
these fish at present levels. This was the big fight of the
winter of 1990/91. We won by putting off permanent allocation to
trawlers of the species they take now for at least one year. I
believe a hidden agenda of DFO, who supported the trawlers on
"ground fish allocation", was to introduce Individual Vessel
Quotas in the trawl fleet once allocation was in place. On the
east coast, this system has greatly improved the economic
performance of trawling, increasing their value and thus made
phase-out of the trawl fleet that much more difficult.

Bycatch economics

The overlap in by-catch is a much bigger economic issue, because
B.C. trawlers destroy about 22% (about $3 million) of B.C. black
cod fishermen's income and 25% (about $5 million) of B.C.'s
halibut fishermen's income, and an undetermined % of salmon
fishermen's income, plus habitat, plus the associated shore
worker employment. They destroy much high value fish and it's
habitat to take huge volumes of fish that they lower in value by
a lack of individual handling, or they sell to foreigners for
processing.

Mr. Barry Bracken (of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game,
Petersburg, Alaska) has an in-house study of the economics of
trawl by-catch in S.E. Alaskan inshore waters that concluded
that for every dollar of fish taken, six dollars worth were
destroyed. By gradual area closure, trawling has gradually been
phased out in S.E. Alaska.

III. THE PRODUCT

The trawl target fisheries

Trawlers deploy specific gear in specific habitats for the
following target fisheries:

Rockfish (trip limits because they are so old)

21 species of rock fishes in the genus Sebastes are taken
commercially in B.C., most species by trawl gear. These fish are
well known for their many spines. Most notably, rock fishes are
very long-lived and have a "low ratio of growth to biomass";
many species in fact exhibit little growth past age 10-25 years,
yet may live an additional 20-40 years or more (28-) As a
general rule, the deeper-dwelling forms of rock fish grow more
slowly than shallower-dwelling forms (29). The extreme is the
deep water rough eye rock fish, which is fished off the west
coast of the Queen Charlottes, and has now been aged at up to
140 years (30). Longevity is considered a strategy used by these
fish to off-set many years when poor environmental conditions
lead to low survival of larvae. Methods to more accurately age
rock fishes have only recently been developed, thanks to local
B.C. scientists. The largest rock fish species biomass in B.C.,
Pacific ocean perch (POP), ("red fish" on east coast) have
already been very seriously overfished here and indeed
throughout most of the world, especially as the new aging data
has radically changed estimates of yield available from rock
fish stocks (31). Key biologists at Nanaimo who are deeply
concerned about over-harvesting of rock fish (the consequences
of over-exploitation of this species are very long term) are
Bruce Leaman and Sandy McFarlane (but both have strong pro-trawl
bias). Lea man has wrote that "the absence of management aside,
we have no examples of successful management of a major rock
fish stock" (32). Noting that most rock fish fisheries have had
their genesis within the last 30 years, this author notes that
"in every instance of a major trawl fishery for rock fishes, the
progress of the unrestrained fishery has been several years of
relatively high catches preceding a rapid decline and subsequent
years of very low catches", and notes the ocean perch fisheries
in Alaska, B.C., Washington and Oregon, etc., as examples.
Another study (33) analyses the same problem and concludes that
controlling development and capitalization of the fishery at the
onset is perhaps the only way to manage these stocks for
sustained production.

Rock fish management technique

Thus as rock fish are the oldest and most ecologically fragile
of the fishes targeted by trawl gear, DFO has made an attempt to
exploit the selective capabilities of the trawl fleet to allow
only for the harvest of "surplus" rock fish biomass, So "trip
limits" are set each year for 6 rock fish species (rough eye,
POP, yellow mouth, canary, silver gray and yellowtail). Only
trip limits for those species in the stock assemblages (34) are
set as they are either the longest lived or the most over-
exploited. To provide a flow of fillets to market, trip limits
are set for 4 quarterly openings. The accompanying magazine
article explains how trawlers often begin a "trip" (remember,
because they are not freezing the fish at sea they must be back
to port within 8-10 days.) Thus captains fish rock fish for a
few days, and then shift to other species that have few or no
quota restrictions. A side-effect of trip limits is "regulation
induced dumping", or dumping rock fish because the vessel has
already taken its trip limit (35). This has also led to heavy
falsification of the logbooks that each captain must fill out by
law (36). As the estimates of the surplus "biomass" is based
upon catch per unit effort data from these log books,
manipulation of this data is probably leading to serious
overfishing, although managers such as Leaman are attempting to
compensate by setting very low quotas. The fishermen, knowing
this, then feel justified to "cheat" even more. Rock fish
"management" does not really exist, only very wild guessing,
which is a scandal with these long-lived fishes. Another side-
effect is huge quota over-runs, a problem that is considered to
be threatening a number of rock fish stocks. (Also discussed in
above reference).

Pacific cod and sole

Area quotas are set every year for Dover and Lemon sole, but not
as yet for Pacific cod (same family as Atlantic cod). Cod and
sole are often found together. Here are experienced very heavy
discard rates due to juveniles. Lea man has stated that the
discard rate on sole is 20/1 (37) due to juveniles, and this
year Hecate Strait (the main Pacific cod area) was closed for 3
months to reduce juvenile catch. In Alaska, grey cod that have
remained uncaught because of shut-downs due to halibut by-catch
"caps" have been increasingly taken with traps, a very "clean"
method of fishing (little by-catch).

Lingcod, rock fish and turbot roller gear target fisheries

Trawlers are now increasingly targeting "hard bottom" with the
use of "roller gear" to take POP, turbot, and lingcod. Lingcod
are a target fishery in two major areas, and a by-catch
elsewhere.

Hake

In 1988 96,050 mt of hake were taken off Vancouver Island. Of
this amount, about 6.6% was landed ashore by Canadian fishermen,
about 52% was landed on foreign factory vessels by Canadian
fishermen, and 41~ was caught by foreign factory vessels in
Canadian waters (Poland, USSR, and Japan). This is a mid-water
fishery, with an annual, overall quota set by the DFO.
All foreign vessels must have observers. I believe this fishery
is to be greatly reduced in 1991, but I have no hard data on
this.

Expanding trawl fisheries

In 1990 a major new market demand for turbot led to a catch of
over 1662 MT, with a recent study on "unutilized" stocks
indicating that up to 15,000 MT might be taken coast wide (38).
The study mentions that large amounts of halibut are taken as a
by-catch when turbot fishing over "hard bottom".

Current dogfish catches of 2 - 3.5 MT/ year are believed
expandable to about 18,000 MT (same study).

Trawlers are moving into deeper waters (400-600m) in search of
Dover sole. Current catches of 2,000 MT are expected to expand
to a total of about 7,000 MT (same study).

B.C. trawlers often do target specific species (see attached
article) and shift target species and areas fished to suit
regulations. Many specialize in particular areas and particular
species. Personal experience with many specific grounds as well
as the ability to "network" among other knowledgeable fishermen
is a key to this ability to shift.

Major processing companies into trawl fish are MacMillans (39),
B.C. Packers. A fair percentage of B.C.'s trawl catch goes
directly to the U.S., often to be processed by Canadian
companies with plants there. With the vessels that freeze at
sea, blocks of fish must be separated by species, by law. I have
no hard data on the percentages, but I believe that most all
B.C. trawl fish is now delivered in the "round".

In most cases the consumer buys fillets of trawl-caught ground
fish. Fillet is a process that usually leads to a "recovery" of
about 33% of the "round" weight of the fish. This fillet
tradition is wasteful, as compared with baking, boiling or
steaming the whole (gutted and headed) or steak Ed fish.

While line-caught ground fish are almost always gutted at sea,
trawl-caught fish generally are not (except for black cod), and
the resulting higher quality is reflected in higher ex-vessel
prices for line-caught fish. Line-caught fish is often steak Ed,
offering a greater recovery.

B.C. processors prefer the 4 quarterly "openings" so that they
can rapidly ship fillets without the high costs associated with
freezing. I don't have info on where in the world B.C. ground
fish goes, but B.C.Packers people I know discuss only the U.S.
markets.

Accompanying Notes

1) About 6,060 fishing vessels in B.C., with about 120 active
trawl vessels. (Note: due to the overlap of species licenses on
vessels, there are more licenses than vessels). From Fisheries
Council of B.C. 1988 report.

2) This is a rough estimate made from 1988 Provincial stats.

3) In order to make this estimate, I deducted that portion of
ground fish taken by hook and line (I had used an internal DFO
memo to make these estimates). Also, black cod must be taken
from the "ground fish" category (only 8.75 %is taken by trawl by
law), as well as halibut.

3a) A rough guestimate.

4) These are 1989 figures extrapolated from a confidential
Pacific Stock Assessment Review Committee report in my
possession.

5) This regulation introduced about 1950 by IPHC when it was
found that most trawl halibut were very small.

6) To my knowledge, trawlers everywhere must not retain salmon.

7) This was an allocation decision. Trawlers now target black
cod, and dump many immatures, particularly in the Big Bank area
of Vancouver Island (by catch in a few areas was documented by
Stanley) and most fishermen know about this problem).

8) DFO ground fish head Ed Zyblit says salmon by-catch is not a
problem, but admits having little hard data.

9) These figures from a DFO memo.

10) DFO paper by Rutherford 1990.

11) This is an educated guess on my part, and Eric agrees, but
we have no "hard copy" on this at this time.

12) This, like the "you can only export 25% of salmon and
herring "GATT ruling, is clearly a politically manipulated
"health" regulation (by the big processors and the UFAWU), for
almost all fish taken by hook and line vessels are headed and
gutted in B.C. (this exposes just as much tissue to bacteria as
does fillet.)

13) Again an educated guess.

14) This is the only trawler study done to my knowledge.

15) Again from 1986 DFO study.

16) Fisheries Council of B.C. 1988 study. 17) Rutherford 1990
DFO study. 18) 1 9 ) 20) I have watched them work on the gear
all night after coming in Nanaimo biologists like Bruce Leaman
complain about this.

See attached magazine article.

20) I have watched them work on the gear all night after coming
in from rough grounds.

21) Understanding this increase in efficiency is one of the
reasons for the East Coast cod collapse; stock size is estimated
by DFO trawl surveys and (especially in B.C.) by CPUE (Catch per
unit effort as an indication of relative abundance over timed).

22) Doug March, Managing Director
Deep Sea Trawlers Association of B.C.
10377 - 125 A. Street
Surrey, B.C.
V3V 4Z7
583-4588 (office)
584-5328 (res)
Fax 584-4180

23) I sat on CFIC for two years representing salmon trollers.
Scott Hanna is secretary (one of M. M'Gonigle's students). CFIC
was initiated and in my opinion controlled by the UFAWU.

24) You should subscribe THE FISHERMAN newspaper, although be
aware the figures are often very dishonest; a recent issue told
all B.C. fishermen that Canadian trawlers "take about 1.6 M lbs
of halibut by-catch annually, a figure that has been stable over
time") Don McCaughran says 2.5 M is the correct current estimate
for B.C., and most non-trawl fishermen I know who know the trawl
industry say the halibut by-catch is now higher than ever
before, for trawl catches are now much higher than ever before,
and have moved to much more "hard bottom" ground with the use of
"roller" gear.

25) Eric Wickham recently had some bitter correspondence in this
regard with the Fisheries Association, which we will show you if
you wish to see it (I drafted it for Eric.)


26) These are official DFO figures for 1991, CFIC document.

27) Hook and liners or trap fishermen took:

$1,418,284.00 of lingcod 
$2,440,586.00 of rock fish 
$1,023,687.00 of dogfish in 1987.

by comparison, they took: 
$28,326.00 of halibut 
about $13,000,000 of black cod in 1987.

Dogfish is a very low value fish with an under-utilized biomass.
They only keeps on ice for only 3 days or less, and are only
marginally profitable when other fisheries are not available.

Rock fish have been increasingly sought by a small group of long
liners at the same time as a huge expansion into virgin stocks
by the trawl fleet. Rock fishes are a long-lived fish that grow
very slowly; scientists have on]y recently perfected a method to
age rock fishes (Chilton and Beamish, 1982), which has radically
changed estimates of yield available from rock fish stocks (Lea
man and Beamish 1984). Again, rock fish are worth much more if
caught by hook and line, but they remain a marginal economic
opportunity when they are the target species for hook and
liners. Trawlers take them in great volume, however.

Lingcod are a moderately valuable ground fish, averaging 36
cents/lb for trawl caught and 54 cents/lb for long line/troll
caught fish in 1987 (DFO memo 1988). Line caught fish are gutted
at sea, whereas trawl-caught fish generally are not, and the
resulting higher quality is reflected in high ex-vessel prices
for line-caught fish. Trawl caught lingcod is filleted, but
line-caught fish is often steak Ed, offering a greater recovery. 
Trollers and some long liners have increasingly sought lingcod
as salmon seasons have been reduced, but this low value fish is
not the subject of a bitter allocation fight.

28) (Leaman and Beamish, 1984).

29) (Leaman, personal communication)

30) (Chilton and Beamish, 1982)

31) (Leaman and Beamish 1984)

32) (Leaman, 1986)

33) (Francis, 1986)

34) 4 species are generally caught together from the deep water
or "shelf" assemblage, and 3 main species are taken together in
the "shelf" assemblage.

35) I have a study of this problem in Oregon; none has been
undertaken here although Ed Zyblit has admitted in the press
that it is a problem here.

36) See 1990 Can. Tech, Rep. of Fish and Aquat. Sc. No. 1732, P.
195.

37) Personal communication to me, no hard copy.

38) Silver and Macleod, 1991, in my possession.

39) Eric Wickham knows Barry MacMillan very well.