This article is intended as general information only and cannot be relied upon as legal advice. Please read this Disclaimer .
Licenses are the life blood of any fishing enterprise.
Without them the market value of even a newly-constructed 64 foot 11 inch steel longliner built at a cost of over 1.5 million dollars would plummet to a fraction of its cost as soon as it went down the slipway. We have discussed in previous articles how the law interprets licenses as property for the purposes of bankruptcy and whether or not a fisher harvester can successfully sue the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans for damages when the authorities deny him or her a license. One interesting feature of this case was that Halliday was not fishing a license issued in his own name, but a license issued to Farrell Leo Monroe. As you know, this is a common practice in Newfoundland, where a fish harvester will catch his or her quota and also make arrangements to catch the quota belonging to other license holders. Fish harvesters should keep in mind that both the vessel owner and the license holder may face charges where they fail to exercise due diligence to comply with the terms of the license.