Fisheries committee  Thank you. I cannot currently access all of the products when I want them and as readily as I would like to have them. As a customer, that's an issue for me. We're already not producing enough. Regarding the issue of whether we have the capability or capacity on our vessels, we handle bluefin tuna right now.

Fisheries committee  I think Mr. Woodford would probably have a better response to that because that is definitely his area of expertise, if you wouldn't mind my passing the question on to him.

Fisheries committee  Thank you. First and foremost, I am your customer. I buy seal oil tablets currently. I buy mittens and I buy boots for my grandchildren. I make them wear them to school, by the way, and they do get very interesting responses. I am your customer. My neighbours are your customer.

Fisheries committee  I didn't think that was such a big announcement, but thank you for pointing that out. Yes, we do need to do more seal science, but only in relation to the effects of these pinniped populations on the ecosystem and on that food web. What are these species eating? We know what they're eating.

Fisheries committee  A good start would be to have our federal minister come out and publicly promote the seal industry in Canada for what it actually it is. In my presentation, I mentioned the meat, the oils, the pelts and even the fashion. It's a whole product. It's not a challenge to utilize the whole animal.

Fisheries committee  Thank you for that question. It's near and dear to my heart. I am 100% convinced that harvesters need to be consulted. In almost all cases, they have the answers, if they're asked and allowed to contribute. The issue with many of our stocks is that because of the lack of seal diet datasets, it is very difficult to access the existing ones and to get the Department of Fisheries and Oceans scientists and managers to include field predation on whatever species we're talking about.

Fisheries committee  As harvesters, our role is to harvest the resource. We are fishermen. Well, I'm not a fisherman; I represent fishermen. I work with fishermen, and I represent the fishing industry. It is our responsibility to harvest whatever marine resources are commercially viable in the ocean to support our communities, to support our families.

Fisheries committee  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.

Fisheries committee  Thank you very much. Good day and thank you so much for the invitation to speak. I'm very pleased that this committee wants to discuss the management of pinnipeds. The committee has been presented sufficient documentation and discussion to emphatically state that the pinniped populations are at an extreme level, never before recorded.