The selling of fish issue by some First Nations, is a tough one, whatever species of fish it is.
On one side, we have a large commercial fleet out on the ocean catching loads of sockeye, selling them to all the stores, restaurant supply chains, etc, and making millions of dollars. On the other side of the coin we have some First nations bands selling sockeye for quick cash.
If I were a First Nations citizen, I would not want to eat fish all the time. I would think it would be perfectly reasonable to trade or sell some of my fish for other food items, or cash to purchase a variety of other foods.
Having said that, I still feel that allowing First Nations people to sell fish is impossible to regulate. If it is allowed to happen, either legally, or by turning a blind eye, it promotes a cash based fishery and would likely encourage some fishermen to catch more fish than their alloted harvest quota so as to make money.
More importantly, if the sockeye have such low returns this year, how can anyone justify catching them and selling them? One might argue that the commercial fleet did so, but at that time it wasn't known that the sockeye run was going to crash like it has. Catching them for food and ceremonial purposes is one thing, but for economic purposes when conservation issues are such a concern right now, that's far too irresponsible for me to accept.
If DFO or RCMP try to act on such fish sales it opens up a political can of worms. Some First Nations people, regardless of the legality of it, obviously feel they should be allowed to sell fish.
Some members here have brought this topic up constantly, and it is an interesting topic to discuss. So I have moved a few comments and created this new thread and made a few points of my own to try and cover some of the possible angles of the discussion.
So I ask this...What are others opinions on this issue...?
I will warn you now though, keep this topic clean. Do not generalize, or blindly attack the First Nations peoples. I did not create this topic for that purpose. We're talking fish sales by some First nations groups and we're talking about the legality, politics, and regulation of it. KEEP IT CLEAN.
Thx,
rib