Yesterday my Microeconomic Policy 210 class attended the Fraser Institute Student Seminar. One topic discussed was about BC fisheries, specifically halibut. The speaker, Christopher Sporer, presented the basically the SWOTs of the industry. We later broke out into discussion groups and brought up issues that are concerning.

Sustainablity: What if we overfish? Measures have been implemented: Canada puts a lot quotas on the fisherman and restrictions on the size.

Competition: Halibut is a luxury item and the competition for it is very high, especially between Canada and the USA. Alaska’s industry is no doubt stronger than that of BC, but BC along with the rest of Canada is very stable. The industry is essentially a monopoly, because there are so few distributors and high barriers to entry. I think it needs to turn oligopoly to keep the industry sufficient in Canada.

Economics: Should there be regulation in the fishing industry? If there is high regulation, then Canada may lose out profit. If there is de-regulation, there is a chance that overfishing can lead to no fish at all. Some people argued a more Jeffersn democratic perspective, that there should be a reliance on 2 larger fishing companies rather than 200 smaller ones.