Fisheries committee  That's a loaded question—

Fisheries committee  —and it's an excellent one. We can come back and talk for ages on that, but I would point again to the science. We've looked at the science, and we need to do more. We've looked at large areas of the oceans and identified where the corals and sponges are and where the protected

Fisheries committee  The principle of adjacency is one that's applied when we deal with access and allocation. The east coast fishery and the west coast fishery are fundamentally different in terms of how they are managed for access and allocation. I'd be happy to come and talk about this at some po

Fisheries committee  Thank you for the question. It depends on how you count, but it's about 1%. The Oceans Act was passed in 1997. The first major marine protected area established was the Gully, off Nova Scotia. We have eight Oceans Act MPAs. We have a few national marine conservation areas, whic

Fisheries committee  There have been international studies that have looked at different management systems and compared Canada to our colleagues in Australia, the U.S., etc., and we do well. In the most recent one I remember—and it's not that recent—Canada was rated to be number three. In terms of

Fisheries committee  We kept a watching brief on it. It was an Environment Canada lead. Environment Canada has the lead responsibility for section 36 under the Fisheries Act and this was deleterious substances going into the water. It was Environment Canada, but we were in touch with them.

Fisheries committee  We're always monitoring. I can't say for certain that there was a specific document that was done, but we're always monitoring what happens in that area of....

Fisheries committee  I'm happy to answer that. I'll talk a little bit about small craft harbours writ large; it's a really important program. The core program is $95 million a year. Of that, $75 million goes to repairs, maintenance, dredging, and those types of things. Again, as with all of our pro

Fisheries committee  Thanks, Tom. Very briefly, my sector is the ecosystems and fisheries management sector. The Ecosystems and Fisheries Management Sector is responsible for operational policy, the management of programs and the daily administration of most aspects and operations vital to the depa

Fisheries committee  Thank you very much for all of that. In the main estimates the two programs, the Atlantic integrated fisheries program and the Pacific integrated fisheries program, are both highlighted to the joint tune of $33 million per year. It does important work. Our overall relationship

Fisheries committee  Thank you for the question. Salmon really is a significant issue. The minister spoke to the advisory committee that was recently established and which has had meetings across the Atlantic. Our first meeting was in Halifax, then in Moncton, St. John's now, and then there's a meet

Fisheries committee  Yes.

Fisheries committee  We haven't got the report yet from the committee. We got an interim report that actually said we think you should take a number of steps, for example move to catch and retention only in the gulf area. We did that. We'll look very carefully at the final report that we get from the

Fisheries committee  Sure. Thanks. Salmon is an extraordinary species on both coasts. It goes in cycles, right? Last year, as was just pointed out, was an extraordinary year. It was in fact one of the five largest returns for Fraser River sockeye, which is the big run. It's not the only big run, but

Fisheries committee  Sure, I can give some information. Currently there are 111 aquatic species that are listed under the species at risk. COSEWIC, which is the independent scientific body, makes recommendations to the minister. There's a process to consider those recommendations. We do a recovery-p