Fisheries committee  Going on to risk assessment, risk assessment is a cornerstone of any aquatic invasive species program and provides a foundation based in science. Advice stemming from risk assessment is used to determine effective actions and use of resources by targeting highest-risk species, pa

Fisheries committee  Yes, and thank you for the question. You're correct in that we have been working on Asian carp for several years, especially with our American colleagues. Asian carp are not in Canadian waters at this time. They are in the U.S. The bulk of the work has been in the U.S., but we h

Fisheries committee  The $3.5 million per year to deal with Asian carp will allow us to adequately deal with our most pressing issue in the Great Lakes right now. We don't know how any of the realignment the department is facing during this transition period will affect the aquatic invasive species p

Fisheries committee  We can say for sure that the Great Lakes are the biggest epicentre in Canada for aquatic invasive species by far, so it does seem appropriate to put this type of funding towards that. We also have a lot of commitments that this funding will help us deal with. With regard to the

Fisheries committee  I appreciate the question. We've done quite a few risk assessments since 2006, when we started. The results are useful in many ways, and I can give some very specific examples. We've done a risk assessment for bloody red shrimp, which arrived in the Great Lakes in about 2006. T

Fisheries committee  With regard to the funds and where they're going to go, we are still working on those details right now. We know that the Great Lakes Laboratory for Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences is very strongly committed to working with the U.S. on preventing the introduction and establishment

Fisheries committee  Sure. We have an Asian carp strategic plan. It will be for Canadian activities, but also to work with our American partners. The funds would stay here in Canada. It's to deal with a prevention program for Asian carp.

Fisheries committee  Absolutely, prevention and—

Fisheries committee  Absolutely, I cannot stress enough how important outreach and education is for industry, community groups, and the general public in terms of preventing aquatic invasive species. Some of the ideas that we're working on now include education of importers and retailers who are impo

Fisheries committee  Right. The intended reason for bringing these in is not to release them into the wild. We think there are many reasons why they are being released.

Fisheries committee  Yes, there are lots of those examples out there.

Fisheries committee  In Burnaby, B.C., a fish was videotaped. Dr. Mandrak and I looked at it and we believe it is a northern snakehead. We do know that in Canada there are no laws prohibiting importation of any aquatic invasive species. We just don't have those regulations.

Fisheries committee  I appreciate the question, and for snakeheads, it's an interesting case study. You cannot import snakeheads into the United States. They have a federal law that prohibits import. We are importing them into British Columbia. Dr. Mandrak and I have seen them for sale in markets i

Fisheries committee  I'll let Dr. Mandrak speak to that.

Fisheries committee  Thank you. I appreciate that question and can understand the issues there. Each department is required to do an operational review and align their resources to priority areas. For DFO, the protection of native species for the Great Lakes is a priority. Working on prevention of