Terry Halifax
Northern News Services
Hay River (Aug 27/01) - Kim Tybring is a Hay River fisherman who feels he's part of a dying breed. When he's not on the lake he's a "customer service representative" at the Zoo on Vale Island.
 Kim Tybring |
Kim Tybring: Going on 16 years now, on and off.
N/N: Why did you start fishing?
KT: I'm just an angler who's died and gone to heaven.
(laughter)
N/N: What was your first boat?
KT: This was my first fish boat. It's called Miss Kitty, I didn't name it, but it's bad luck to change a fish boat's name...
N/N: So you kept it?
KT: Had to.
I bought this boat because I was afraid to run a big boat. It's been a really good boat to me.
N/N: So how are things going?
KT: Last year was a wipe out, 'cause I had to go to work on the highway to fix it and this year's been windy, windy, windy.
It's been kind of a fidgety year, with lots of little things going wrong.
The best fishing is in the fall. That's when I go.
N/N: You have your other job at the zoo, but could you ever do this exclusively?
KT: I guess I could do this exclusively, but I find that's just too risky. I'm too small of an outfit.
N/N: What happened with the freight subsidy?
KT: The government wanted out of that form of subsidization, so they wanted us to commit to another way of helping the industry.
The fishermen have always been a little hesitant to come-up with other ways to spend that kind of money.
They were used to the old style and nobody could agree with a formula that would promote the industry in an equitable way.
N/N: How was it set up?
KT: It was a per-pound subsidy. The thinking was, because it would cost 10 cents per-pound to ship your fish to Winnipeg, they would pay the road freight to put us on parity with the Lake Winnipeg fishermen.
There was also a lake freight subsidy for the guys out at the lake stations. Because it would cost you so many dollars to get your fish in through Freshwater (Fish Marketing Corp.), the territorial government would kick in the difference.
N/N: How does it work now?
KT: Now they have a graduated formula, where they pay you so many cents per-pound. They call it a fisheries assistance plan.
They'll pay you so much for the first 10,000 kilograms and a little less for the next 30,000 kilograms and a little less after that, to a maximum of 45,000 kilograms.
N/N: Is this a good thing?
KT: It's not going to encourage anybody to go fishing.
N/N: Why is that?
KT: If I was a brand-new fisherman and I wanted to get into it in a serious way, say I was producing 15 to 20,000 kilograms of fish, I'd qualify for bugger-all, because I have no production record.
I think they'll give up to $1,000 as a kind of an advance.
N/N: A thousand dollars doesn't go far.
KT: I drop that in rope. My props cost $2,000 each.
It holds a hundred gallons of gas and that's a few days of fishing, but that's $400 every time I fill up.
I'm not saying the new system is bad; I believe in giving everything a chance.
But to me, it looks like when the big producers have caught their maximum amount in the summer, they won't get a subsidy for the winter.
They're paid out of this one-time deal so you can't really blame them if they say, 'Here's where we fold.' And that's what's going to happen.
It's easy to be pessimistic and I hate to be pessimistic, but that's what my fear is.
We're no where near our quota and there's vacant licences everywhere and they're not addressing it.
N/N: As the old timers -- the big producers -- retire, there's nobody coming to replace them?
KT: No. There are three steel boats sitting up on the dock right now. They were working last year, but won't be working this year.
Nobody's gonna pay the investment to get into it.
N/N: Do you feel a little bit like a vanishing breed out there?
KT: We are a vanishing breed.
There hasn't been a focus on making the fishery a self-sustaining, economically-viable proposition.
Licensing is against people; in order to get a fishing licence today, you have to be a five-year resident of the NWT.
Nobody's going to come up here and wait five years to start a job where they might be able to make some money.
They can come up here and in six months be working at Diavik.
That, and it's hard work.
N/N: It looks like hard work.
KT: I don't look at it as hard work. To me, it's just the thing we do, but when you bring somebody out with you and say, 'Okay, we're gonna lift some nets and move some boxes,' they look at you as if you're crazy and say, 'Why do you do this?'
It's just part of what I am.
N/N: What's it feel like when you pull that net up and see it's fat with fish?
KT: I never see it fat with fish!
(laughter)
When you look down in there and see a thousand or two thousand pounds of fish and they're all wet and cold ... it's just the best thing.
It makes you feel useful; it makes me feel like I'm worth something.
I like to produce things and it's fun to occasionally win.
N/N: Any ideas on how they can save this industry?
KT: I do.
N/N: You wanna share them with the world?
KT: What prevents a young man at succeeding in this business is, he has such a significant risk in his wet gear -- like his nets.
You can finance a boat, because it's a capital asset. You can insure it and if it goes down and you live, you can get a new one.
The danger is all the nets. In a little boat like mine you should have 45 or 50 nets and in a big boat, they should have a hundred.
N/N: And what do they cost?
KT: About $200 each. So when you're talking 100, that's 20 grand and there's no program for buying that.
You start in debt, but my theory is, buy them the wet gear. Buy them the gear that they need to succeed.
If a young guy comes up and says, 'I've got a boat and I want to fish,' give him the gear he needs for five years.
The territorial government spends about $400,000 a year in subsidy. If we bought nets in bulk, we could buy 4,000 nets a year.
That would be enough to give everyone across the board all the nets they need.
N/N: How many nets do you have now?
KT: I have about 30. It's what I can afford.
What makes the big guys so successful, is they have all the working gear they need.
They don't even have to think about it.
KT: Are you afraid of lightning at sea?
