Fisheries committee  I think, first of all, one has to consider the probability of Atlantic salmon establishing themselves off of the west coast. On balance—and this was one of the conclusions of the report— there is little evidence that this has happened. And to be fair, it's rather unlikely, I think, that it would happen.

Fisheries committee  That would be a key part of it and that was also identified in the report—that there is no recovery target for northern cod. As a consequence, when the fishery was reopened in 1998 and then re-closed in 2002, quite a few fish were taken. So one of the consequences of making fisheries management decisions in the absence of a long-term plan, and in the absence of targets, is that you run the risk of unintentionally depleting a resource and preventing recovery.

Fisheries committee  I think there are issues at play at present. There are barriers to the free and open communication of science from government scientists to the public and to the media. With respect to aquaculture, in my personal knowledge and my personal opinion, more knowledge is available within government science that I think would enhance the debate if made available to the public.

Fisheries committee  I'll let Dr. Fleming talk about this as well. As we've indicated, there is certainly an opportunity for the current technology of the open-sea net pens to be improved upon in terms of mitigating some of these issues. Escapees, of course, are not good for the industry. They're not good for the environment, and they're not good for the industry.

Fisheries committee  Indeed, I think the 10-year timeline might fall nicely within at least one of the agreements that Canada has made under the Aichi targets. Under the Convention on Biological Diversity, one of the targets is that by 2020 areas affected by aquaculture are managed sustainably and ensure conservation of biodiversity.

Fisheries committee  With respect to the open-net pens, one potential perspective is that it was an appropriate technology 20 to 30 years ago, when closed containment technology simply was not possible. But there seems to be a sense that the industry—and not just aquaculture, but other industries—is moving toward more environmentally sustainable, and arguably, responsible directions.

Fisheries committee  Yes, I think that would be the panel's perspective as well, that it would not advocate that the government take such action.

Fisheries committee  Yes, it wasn't—

Fisheries committee  Okay. It wasn't the intent of the report to suggest that non-government people identify what quotas should be. What the report was advocating, or the position that was being put forth, was that there should be three critical things in place from a fisheries management perspective.

Fisheries committee  Again, there might be a couple of things. With respect to the point about possible constitutional issues on the east coast, that was indeed predicated, as you suggest, by what happened on the west coast. In terms of what might be done to promote aquaculture, one suggestion that I think is embedded in the panel's recommendations is that given Canada's ocean real estate, given the fact that it has the longest coastline in the world and the largest territorial seas in the world, it would be highly appropriate for us to be leaders in ocean stewardship and sustainable harvesting of those resources.

Fisheries committee  The panel concluded that it could be in the form of a revised Fisheries Act or, indeed, in the form of an enacting new legislation, perhaps along the lines of the U.S. Magnuson–Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.

Fisheries committee  I can certainly address that. Certainly it is true today that the northeast Arctic cod, which inhabit the Barents Sea, feed there in the Barents Sea, and then spawn along coastal Norway about this time of year, are doing extraordinarily well right now. Upwards of half a million metric tonnes are predicted to be caught this year, and the stock there is in better shape than it's ever been.

Fisheries committee  That's an extremely good question. I'm very glad you asked it. The panel indeed concluded that we have some very good policies in place. The sustainable fisheries framework, which you just identified, is indeed a very sound piece of policy. It reflects in fact the fisheries policies that are being undertaken in Australia, New Zealand, Norway, parts of the EU, and certainly in the United States.

Fisheries committee  Of course I am a scientist, and I have been reminded as such.

Fisheries committee  What I will offer is the following. I can't really offer in terms of timeframes, but what I can say, as a fish biologist in this country, is this. We have an extraordinary richness of freshwater fishes across Canada. There are countries such as Finland.... I was there three weeks ago visiting a seafood processing company that is taking advantage of closed containment yellow perch, lake whitefish, and pickerel—what they call pike-perch, but it's related to our pickerel or walleye.