Thank you for the question.
For any species that we harvest, there has to be a market for it or we wouldn't be harvesting it. If we're not going to be paid for our work, and we're going to take a resource from the marine environment, then the return on that has to be greater than the effort and the cost put into that. That will dictate the level of involvement for harvesters.
If the market is not there, then how do we develop that? That's not rocket science, and we shouldn't have to reinvent the wheel for this. How do we develop markets for any species that we harvest? In fact, how do we develop markets in Canada for blueberries, for beef or for pork and all the challenges that come along with those?
We have a policy in place. We show our proven track record. We show the chain of custody to show that the food product is safe and that it's harvested sustainably. It's promotion, it's pride and it's the Canadian government standing up for the seal industry and saying that this is a sustainable harvest and this is a humane harvest. The biomass is unbelievable. The resource is there for Canadians.
It just boggles my mind how we can't get around this, because there are customers out there. There are customers who want to utilize every part of the seal. We were even talking about using the offal and the waste for bait as an alternative to some of our other forage species that have very low biomass currently.
It's putting that whole picture together. I see the role of the provincial government, as well as the federal government, in assisting the industry to get those processing plants, the facilities, up and running then into the markets. China is a huge market, and the U.K. is a huge market. The whole world is starving for the high protein, the omega-3 and the pelts. I don't know why we're challenged with this. We are not challenged with anything else that we're trying to promote and market.
I hope that answers your question.