Fisheries committee  All we're saying here is that if you have 100 fishermen in the room now, and DFO wants to consult with them, they have 100 different opinions.

Fisheries committee  We're saying please organize yourselves; think about what your fundamental objectives are, and then determine that, and come back with one voice. Then we'll have movement, and we'll have leadership. That's what we mean here more than anything. We're not trying to say one group i

Fisheries committee  On aquaculture and enhancement of lobsters, we do have a paragraph on that. Before you continue enhancement projects and setting stage IV lobsters into the ocean, what we've heard is that the returns are very poor economically. Before you go into large projects of that type think

Fisheries committee  The simplest thing is landings information, and it's hard to get. There are reasons. Remember I told you there was non-compliance in the fishery? We heard during the consultations that lots of lobsters are sold under the table on the black market, so they're not recorded. Once mo

Fisheries committee  Thank you, Mr. Stoffer. Mr. Van Kesteren asked if we had some tough questions, and this was one of them. But we need to say how it is. This is a driver in the fishery. When people are fishing and they don't quite get enough money from the fishery but they get enough stamps, that

Fisheries committee  I think in answer to that, Mr. Stoffer, the risk that we currently have is like driving at night with your lights off. When you don't have the information in front of you to make decisions, it's very scary and dangerous. We feel that the risks are too high. You need to have the

Fisheries committee  Who should pay for it? I don't recall exactly what we said here. I'd have to look back on that, I would have to guess. It has to be at least shared so that industry does have a say into it. I'm not sure exactly what I said on monitoring.

Fisheries committee  If you buy back a licence covering 250 traps, but keep using 200, that is a reduction of 50 traps. If you buy a licence for 250 traps, but you only want to use 200 of them, there are now 50 fewer traps. It is a way of reducing the fishing effort. But if a fisherman buys a licence

Fisheries committee  That is correct, yes. There are different ways of going about it. It is very complicated to decide how not to get back to the situation you were in before you bought the licences.

Fisheries committee  We have looked at that. In the United States, they fish year round. They have no fishing season. The rules on the number of traps are different. The size of the lobsters they sell is also different; in general, they are bigger than ours. But the cycles that can be observed in the

Fisheries committee  The costs of doing business are higher, including the costs for the boat. The fisherman only has one choice: land more lobster in order to earn more money so that he can solve his economic problems. That puts more pressure on the resource, not the other way round. The balance bet

Fisheries committee  Exactly. They push harder.

Fisheries committee  May I just add something?

Fisheries committee  Everything that we have received is on the website, our FRCC website, all the briefs. All the information is open and transparent, and anything we've heard you can find there. If you need information or before you go to consult, if you'd like some help I'm sure the secretariat w

Fisheries committee  I'll ask Donald to answer.