David Boyd believes being able to transfer his fishing enterprise to a family member would help sustain the small-boat inshore fishery in rural Newfoundland and Labrador.
In addition to residency requirements, they must also show that at least 75 per cent of their income for the past two years has come from the fishery.Watkins, who has helped Boyd fish his quotas for the last 25 years or so, has the fishing experience and the certifications needed. “They’re keeping me out and the only people that can advance and buy up these licences are fisherman who already have two, three, four or five enterprises,” said Watkins.Already been through it
He said the rules brought about in the late 1990s were designed to reduce the number of fish harvesters in the struggling industry, but now they are preventing some who might be able to successfully run enterprises from getting into it. He would also consider passing it on to his son, Greg, who has also helped Boyd fish his quota and had a career as a second mate in the wheelhouse of a 1,200-foot supertanker shipping oil from the Middle East to Japan, but doesn’t meet the fishing income criteria required by the board.
He noted that the 2,700 core fishing enterprise licences that exist today were created by people who could prove they pursued the fishery for full-time employment. “Once you give those who are not legitimate full-time fish harvesters access to the resource, the people with the deepest pockets win the day.