PRINCE RUPERT VOL. 9 NO. 6
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
FREE
Crime hits a five-year low BY SHAUN THOMAS PRINCE RUPERT / The Northern View
News New chairs for Rupert hospital Page A3
Community European green crab targeted Page A9
Offences committed 2009: 5,193 2010: 5,178 2011: 5,439 2012: 4,717 2013: 4,085
YEAR OF THE HORSE Shaun Thomas / The Northern View
Lettuce goes flying through the air as the Lion Dance starts the Chinese New Year celebration at the Nisga’a Hall on Sunday night. For more from the event, see Page A19.
Fishery change privatizes industry, union claims
Sports River Kings eliminate Rampage Page A11
Fishery becomes “like the stock market” under new system BY MARTINA PERRY PRINCE RUPERT / The Northern View
Haida Gwaii New jobs in Port Clements Page B1
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Numbers released by the RCMP show crime in Prince Rupert reached a five-year low in 2013. The number of offences handled by the detachment in 2013 was 4,084, a drop of 633 from 2012 and a drop of more than 1,350 from the fiveyear high of 5,439 recored in 2011. However, not each of the seven offence categories saw a five-year low and some actually hit a five-year high in 2013. Crimes against persons was at a five-year low after falling 22 per cent from 2012, from 668 to 523, and most of the crime types were down. Aggravated assaults were down 75 per cent, assaults with a weapon were down 28 per cent, common assaults were down 17 per cent and instances of criminal harassment, uttering threats and sex-related offences were down. The only personal crime category that increased in 2013 was robbery, which rose from nine cases in 2012 to 13 cases in 2013. See CRIME on Page A2
190 Alpine Drive $339,000
Prince Rupert’s United Fishermen and Allied Workers’ Union (UFAWU) representative is concerned with changes the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) is considering to the BC salmon fishery. The DFO is planning to change the salmon fishery from an open fishery model to individual transferable quotas (ITQ), which Joy Thorkelson said could put the fishery at a conservation risk and could leave fishermen on the North Coast holding the short end of the stick. Under the current Open Fishery Model, the DFO establishes a species-specific allowable
“The working fisherman is the one who loses.” - Joy Thorkelson catch for a period of time, which is usually only a few days. The DFO is able to open up the fishery for additional days if the allowable amount isn’t caught. According to Thorkelson, one issue with a quota fishery is that the DFO has to be more precise with its allowable catch when managing the season.
“They can’t really be precise with salmon because they really don’t know how large the salmon run is every day or every week,” said Thorkelson. Conservation is also a concern because under the ITQ, fishermen are given more time to catch the allowable amount. If DFO makes a mistake with numbers, overfishing of a species is possible. Thorkelson said another issue with ITQ is that quota can be bought, sold or leased. “It’s a privatization of the fish because it comes a commodity, before it’s even caught, that you can buy, sell trade. It becomes like the stock market and the working fishermen is the one who loses,” Thorkelson said. See FISHERY on Page A2
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