Geoduck fishery
The following profile provides the socioeconomic context of the geoduck fishery in British Columbia. It includes an overview of the commercial sector. This overview is based on data collected from DFO commercial harvest logbooks and sale slips, public reports, and DFO surveys on harvest prices.
Long text version
2023 Economic profile of the geoduck fishery
Commercial fisheries overview
In the 2022/23 fishing season, the Total Allowable Catch (TAC) for the coast-wide Geoduck is set at 2,811,000 lbs., with 2,805,000 lbs. allocated for commercial use, divided into 550 quota blocks of 5,100 lbs. each. The remaining TAC is used for biological samples, biotoxin monitoring, and broodstock collection. There may also be limited supplemental harvest opportunities on areas tenured for aquaculture.
Note – the fishing season runs from April 1st through March 31st of the following year. Landings (below) are calculated by fishing year, with the rest of the profile calculated using calendar year to better measure economic impacts and indicators.
Key metrics for the geoduck fishery, all values are from 2023 and in 2023 dollars:
- Landed value ($65M2), increased by 13% since 2022.
- Active vessels (303), decreased by 1% since 2022.
- Licence eligibilities (55, with 5 being communal licences), no change since 2022.
- Licence value (without quota) ($285K), increased by 14% since 2022.
Annual geoduck landings by fishing season chart
- 2012 – 3.3M lbs
- 2013 – 3.3M lbs
- 2014 – 3.3M lbs
- 2015 – 3.3M lbs
- 2016-17 – 3.1M lbs
- 2017-18 – 3.1M lbs
- 2018-19 – 3.1M lbs
- 2019-20 – 3.1M lbs
- 2020-21 – 3.0M lbs
- 2021-22 – 2.9M lbs
- 2022-23 – 2.8M lbs
Commercial fishery Pacific geoduck - 2022-23 landed weight
- North coast: 1.98 million lbs in total volume
- West Coast Vancouver Island: 389 thousand lbs in total volume
- East Coast Vancouver Island: 331 thousand lbs in total volume
Income diversification of licence holders in active fisheries (2023) chart
In 2023, 94% of revenues for geoduck licence holders came from geoduck harvesting, with the rest coming from sea cucumber (5%), prawn and shrimp trap (1%), green sea urchin, and red sea urchin.
Exports: The demand for geoduck is mainly in overseas markets in China (57%), followed by Hong Kong (37%) and Macao (5%). Percentages are of total volume.
The Pacific Geoduck fishery directly contributes $35M (GDP) to the provincial economy, with a direct employment and income contribution of 109 and $23M, respectively.
In 2012, a transfer program allowed each license's quota to be split from 1/55 into 10 transferable blocks among the 55 licenses (1/550). Quotas are associated with specific areas rather than licenses.
Geoduck quota is more valuable than licence value alone. Each block is valued at $925K. Therefore, a total package value (licence and 10 quota blocks) in 2023 was $9.535M.
There are more than 5 CFE (Commercial Fishing Enterprises) comprised of an estimated 36 Nations that participate in the communal commercial fisheries under an FG (F licence).
Footnotes:
All values are from 2023 compared to 2022 in 2023-dollars by calendar year, unless otherwise specified.
2023 data and 2020–2023-dollar values are considered preliminary and are subject to change.
Licence eligibilities represents the number of issued licences.
- Fishing season runs from April 1 to March 31 of the following year.
- Landed value is calculated from fisheries manager landings multiplied by the 2023 price survey value in the absence of complete logbook data and is considered preliminary.
- Active vessels were included based on manager’s advice and do not match logbook records for 2023.
Data
The commercial data that informed this work can be downloaded here.
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