Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member and congratulate him on his first question in the House. The question is important. As everybody in the House knows, the state of the cod stocks in Atlantic Canada is dangerously low, particularly the northern cod stocks.
The purpose of this program is to have commercial fishermen who are properly trained to measure, under controlled circumstances, the inshore fishery by actually setting nets and counting fish. This is a valuable complement to the scientific surveys carried out offshore and in other community areas.
The real purpose is to measure the abundance and the migration pattern, to have real biological data which complement scientific data and to work in harmony with scientists in close consultation for the systematic betterment of-