Developing an Environmentally Responsible Irritant for the British Columbia Octopus Dive Fisheries

Abstract

Bleach has been used for decades as an irritant in the British Columbia (BC) commercial octopus dive-fishery. Recently the FAO (United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization) declared that using noxious substances in any fishery is considered unlawful, under international law. Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) has asked BC octopus fishers to alter their fishing practises to bring them into accord with the FAO declaration and what will be Canadian Law. This paper considers the relative merits of prohibiting bleach in all fisheries and then discusses the current efforts in Northern BC to resolve this concern – including the results of informal dive tests that used a variety of alternative irritants in fall/99. The recommendations in this paper are based on a common sense trade-off between the cost-effectiveness, the safety-in-use, and the environmental friendliness of various irritant solutions. It is the considered opinion of the authors that, when political considerations are ignored, dry-bleach in solution is the best irritant for the BC octopus fishery at this time – suggestions were also made for further testing of other irritants.