Young people shun fishing
By Robert Barron, The Daily News June 11, 2011
I doubt if a study, sponsored by the province and the industry about why young people are no longer entering the commercial fisheries in B.C., will provide many answers.
The average age of commercial fishing-boat workers in the province is now between 55 and 60, the age of retirement for many of us, and it's causing concerns about the future of the industry.
But the cause for the dilemma is a no-brainer for local anglers, who I talked to about the issue this week.
Mladen Zuvich, whose family has a long tradition of sons following their fathers into the industry going back to when they lived in Croatia, said his son has chosen another life for himself and his family away from the fisheries.
His son has chosen a career in the restaurant business and intends to cook the fish that is brought into his kitchen, while leaving others to deal with all the problems and worries of catching it.
Zuvich attributed the drop in interest of young people to enter the increasingly troubled industry to decreasing fish stocks, the high costs of licences and increasingly convoluted regulations.
The loss of an industry and the tremendous effect it has on people reared on the open seas are issues that I covered in some depth while reporting in Newfoundland when the cod stocks collapsed there almost 20 years ago.
I recall all the residents from fishing communities boarding up their homes and heading west to new and uncertain futures in places like Toronto and the oil sands of northern Alberta.
I'll never forget the look of fear and apprehension on their faces as I interviewed them regarding their thoughts and expectations as they were forced to move forward with their lives, away from the ocean and the land that had sustained their families for generations.
I often wonder what became of many of them, some of whom had never strayed more than 100 kilometres from their homes.
There's no doubt that it was the end of one life and the beginning of a new one for them and I suspect that B.C.'s fisheries and the thousands who rely on them will likely follow the same pattern.
However it will likely be a gradual transition here and not the abrupt and cataclysmic change that was suddenly forced on many East Coast workers.
After all, the United Nations' food and agriculture organization is reporting that almost 50% of all the world's seafood currently comes from aquaculture operations and the projections are for it to surpass catch-fisheries in the near future.
With the world's population projected to reach nine billion people within the next few decades, which is about a 30% increase from now, the pressures on the planet's wild fish populations will continue to build up exponentially.
I expect the wild-catch fisheries that have sustained humanity since their inception will eventually become a thing of the past.
Like it or lump it, regulated and self-sustaining fish farms are the way most the world's fisheries will be conducted in future years.
So I doubt that the study will be able to provide any simple solutions to bringing more young people into the fisheries, unless they are willing to enter the growing world of fish-farming.
It's a sad fact to face, but change is inevitable and no amount of study is going to change that.
