Foreign Affairs committee  I will just comment from an Arctic Council perspective. This idea of increased marine tourism and potential implications to environments and communities of the north is something that's been recognized. Certainly, Minister Aglukkaq has recognized that as a priority initiative t

Foreign Affairs committee  Well, I haven't done science for a very long time. I know just the basics, that it's the excess of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and this excess of carbon dioxide will affect the pH balance of aqueous environments, bringing a more acidic—

Foreign Affairs committee  Oh, gee, I think that concept has been around in the scientific community in excess of 30 years. We, Canada, have been fairly active. Our experts, for example, on the Pacific coast were part of some of the earlier monitoring systems of detecting these rises in acidification.

Foreign Affairs committee  I don't know the levels in terms of how it has increased, or the acidity, but it would vary depending on the water body. It would depend on what the baseline pH level would be, so there would be some slight differences. It wouldn't be the same all over the globe, but the trend i

Foreign Affairs committee  It's certainly a bit of conjecture given where we are in terms of our lack of scientific knowledge. You mentioned that. You need that basis. That's really where we are at that stage of leveraging to try to get an understanding of what we're actually dealing with here. It's very

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes, and I'll turn it over to my colleague here, but as mentioned, it's a very expensive region to operate in, and leveraging is the key word in doing work, including scientific research in the Arctic. I totally agree that we have to be creative and look at partnering for some of

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes. I think I was commenting on the lay of the land regarding what exists now in terms of a legal framework. Contrary to some of the stories in the media and the suggestion that it's like the wild west, I think that's far from the truth. That being said, in general there can be

Foreign Affairs committee  With respect to fishing, I don't think there will be a strong link there simply because, again, the Arctic Council doesn't have a mandate to manage fisheries, so I don't think there's a big concern in terms of them having an influence on fisheries management. In the same way that

Foreign Affairs committee  It remains to be seen. It's not a yes or no question, but the question has been raised as to whether there will be a commercially viable fishery in the central Arctic Ocean. Part of that questioning is, of course, related to ice cover. Even with the reduction in multi-year ice, a

Foreign Affairs committee  Right.

Foreign Affairs committee  We're getting a little bit of data related to Greenland halibut. Not all fish species are sensitive to temperature changes, but some are, and Greenland halibut is one of those. They have, in fact, been detecting a northward movement of Greenland halibut up into some of those shel

Foreign Affairs committee  It's a commercial species now, so yes. These shelf areas in the Arctic, of course, would have to be conducive to good productivity. The Arctic Ocean in general is not considered a necessarily highly productive area compared with some other ocean areas on the globe.

Foreign Affairs committee  It's colder. You tend to have species that are slower growing, with lower reproductive rates and that sort of thing.

Foreign Affairs committee  I can comment a bit on that. Again, I'm not with our science group, but I do have a role with the Arctic Council marine working group, so I am a bit familiar with different activities. The short answer is yes, we're very much engaged. As you mentioned, Mr. Dewar, the Arctic Ocea

Foreign Affairs committee  No. The Arctic Council is very project driven—