Since 1990, the CSA has taken an increasingly active role in the monitoring, research, assessment, and management of the commercial sablefish fishery. The CSA has worked cooperatively with the Federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) to help find progressive, constructive, efficient, and effective solutions to the myriad of difficult problems constantly facing fisheries scientists and managers. Today, we believe the Canadian sablefish fishery is one of the best-managed fisheries in the world, due in large part to the efforts of the CSA.

The following will describe the associated co-management activities and relationships.

RESEARCH AND STOCK ASSESSMENT

Since 1993, a major assessment of the Pacific sablefish resource has been conducted annually. Prior to this, major assessments were done every three years. The 2002/2003 coastwide sablefish Total Allowable Catch (TAC) is set at 2450 tonnes.

Of course the annual stock assessment is the product of considerable work done throughout the year and over numerous years. While sablefish tagging has occurred since the late 1970’s, tagging surveys for the expressed purpose of determining annual exploitation rates have been conducted since 1994. Approximately 20,000 fish are tagged annually in tagging charters conducted by CSA members with contracted scientific technicians on board. The tag returns are crucial information used in the annual assessment. Through a well developed tag return incentive program, vessel operators and crew in all commercial fisheries (sablefish, groundfish trawl, halibut, and groundfish longline) are encouraged to return all of the tagged sablefish encountered in the vessel’s catch. The tagged fish are collected at the point of landing and then processed monthly, by a company hired by the CSA, to ensure that the data is accurate, reliable, and in a usable data base available to the assessment scientists.

To update the basic sablefish biological data (age, sex, maturity, stomach contents, etc.), sablefish fishery participants collect biological samples during the commercial fishery. Once again the program is designed to ensure participation and avoid the collection of biased samples. The samples are random and collected by the vessel crew based on well-defined sampling procedures provided to each vessel. Vessels are also provided with the necessary sampling equipment and tags and the sampling kits are refilled after each trip. The samples are collected and processed by the same company hired by the CSA to collect the tagging data.

The assessment is co-authored by DFO scientists and CSA contracted scientists.  While each participating scientist brings with them their own contribution and expertise (tagging analysis, modeling, age analysis, data interpretation, etc.), the end result is a much more robust sablefish assessment.

Not all research and science activities directly relate to the annual assessment. Funding is also targeted at research associated with long-term science and more selective harvesting resulting in reduced juvenile mortality. For example, financial assistance has been provided in support of research studying the relationship of climate and ocean productivity regimes and sablefish year class success. We are hopeful that such research will help determine factors associated with strong sablefish year classes, and can be directly utilized in future assessments. Another example is the research conducted on the use of sablefish trap escape rings as a means of minimizing the capture and associated mortality of juvenile sablefish. The research produced such significant results that by 1999 all commercial vessels were required to have two escape rings in every trap.

All of the costs directly associated with the research and assessment of the sablefish resource are paid for by the sablefish license holders through the CSA. This includes all DFO salaries, benefits, operating and capital expenditures, as well as expenses incurred directly by the CSA for the various charters, contracts, and activities managed by the industry. The annual sablefish science budget, including the tagging charter, is approximately $800,000. Indeed, sablefish is probably one of the few fisheries where research and assessment funding has not declined (in real or nominal terms) over the past decade. In fact, more is spent today than ever before.

MONITORING AND ENFORCEMENT

Prior to 1990, there was no monitoring of the landed sablefish catch, no dedicated enforcement or enforcement resources, and the level of compliance in the sablefish fishery and other fisheries with sablefish bycatch was generally unknown.

Today, all sablefish landed on shore must be validated by independent dockside monitors contracted by the CSA and certified by DFO. This information is used by the fishery managers and enforcement staff to monitor each operator’s compliance with the vessel’s IVQ (Individual Vessel Quota). The dockside monitoring program includes more than just having the catch validated at the point of offloading. The program also includes organizational and administrative management, scheduling, the collation and editing of the data, and entry into a computerized system so management and enforcement staff can access and view the information in the various forms required. Compliance problems are immediately reported to enforcement personnel. The dockside monitoring program is managed by the CSA and costs about $250,000 annually.

For the 2002/2003 sablefish fishery, 15% of the fishing days will be monitored by at-sea observers on board commercial sablefish trap and longline vessels.  Observers will be placed on commercial vessels throughout the year and in the northern and southern regions off the west coast of British Columbia.  The information collected from observed trips will be used to estimate bycatch of non-targeted species such as rockfish.  The at-sea observer program is managed by the CSA and costs approximately $60,000 annually.  

Enforcement is a legislated responsibility carried out by DFO Fishery Officers. The CSA contributes approximately $100,000 annually to DFO for dedicated sablefish enforcement throughout the Pacific Region. These funds are used for salaries and operating expenses for six different Fishery Officers dedicating some of their time each year to sablefish enforcement activities.

The additions of dockside monitoring, dedicated enforcement resources, industry funding, and a more responsible attitude by sablefish fishery participants have resulted in improved compliance with the sablefish fishery rules and regulations.

MANAGEMENT

The costs and personnel demands for managing the commercial sablefish fishery have risen substantially since the implementation of IVQs in 1990. Increased consultation, IVQ calculations and transfers, vessels hailing out before fishing and hailing in prior to landing, dockside monitoring, cost recovery, computer programming, and a twelve month fishery demand more overall management resources. All costs directly associated with the management of the commercial sablefish fishery are funded by sablefish license holders, through the CSA.  The annual DFO salaries (including benefits) and operating costs directly incurred by the management staff involved in sablefish work are fully cost recovered from the industry. In addition, DFO has contractually devolved considerable responsibility for the management of the commercial sablefish fishery to the CSA. Some of the responsibilities devolved to the CSA include:

• Drafting annual and long-term commercial sablefish management plans;
• Conducting regular consultations with DFO and commercial industry participants regarding objectives and operational requirements;
• Coordinating, overseeing, and conducting the dockside monitoring program, at-sea observer program, biological sampling program, stock assessment tagging program, catch and effort survey program, and sablefish IVQ transfer program;
• Coordinating various committees identified in the 2001 DFO/CSA Joint Project Agreement which approve annual workplans and budgets for sablefish research, stock assessment, monitoring, enforcement, and management;
• Funding all aspects of research, stock assessment, monitoring, enforcement and management associated with the commercial sablefish fishery.

To fulfill these obligations, and others, the CSA employs and contracts with professional managers, technicians, scientists, accountants, lawyers and others on an annual and multi-year basis. The total costs of these activities are approximately $1,200,000 annually.

FINAL COMMENTS

We hope that the information above has successfully delivered our primary message that:

Co-management in the commercial sablefish fishery has been a positive experience, has benefited both DFO and the CSA, and has improved the overall research, assessment, monitoring, enforcement, and management of the fishery.

Of course co-management of the sablefish fishery is an evolving process. Our earliest co-management experiences involved DFO doing all of the work and paying most of the bills and the CSA coordinating a dockside monitoring program. Clearly this has expanded over the last ten years. Today co-management in the commercial sablefish fishery has the CSA responsible for numerous operational activities and absorbing most of the costs associated with management of the fishery. Undoubtedly, over the next decade and in future DFO/CSA sablefish co-management agreements the concept will continue to be defined.