Fisheries committee  We are indexing the counting.

Fisheries committee  There isn't a scientist anywhere who wouldn't tell you they could use more information and more resources to gather information. That's what we do. But in this case, we feel that our advice and our stock assessment are credible. There are always uncertainties. The uncertainties t

Fisheries committee  Thank you. I have just a couple of points about that. First off, I think what I would say, at least in this case, is that I don't see a fundamental conflict in what the science is indicating and what the industry and other users are indicating they see. That's not always the ca

Fisheries committee  Certainly, industry seemed to find value in seeking certification because there are markets—and it would vary a bit between fisheries, as you mentioned—that are getting quite demanding in terms of needing certification in order to be able to sell into those markets.

Fisheries committee  I'm not sure. Maybe Jean knows the TAC, but I believe once the council received the scientific advice from the scientific commission there was a sharp reduction in that fishery but not a closure. We don't know what the future will bring, but it wouldn't surprise us if there were

Fisheries committee  I don't have the assessment for SFA 7. Maybe Pierre has it available to see what the projections would be, but we'll see what advice there is.

Fisheries committee  It is a factor at some level, but as I say, it's a mixture of understanding what is going on with the resource and being able to inform yourself about what your limits should be—that's the science-informed part of certification—and then assessing how well the management system is

Fisheries committee  Eco-certification is, as you say, an independent process. These are not government agencies or companies that do it. There are independent organizations at the world level—the Marine Stewardship Council is foremost among them—that establish the parameters for certification, and t

Fisheries committee  As you've mentioned, the certification process is a mix of management measures and scientific measurements and limits and other settings that come together to provide a package for certification. The important thing for certification, from a stock-status viewpoint, is that the

Fisheries committee  Just before I turn it over to Pierre, the earlier session you're referring to I believe, if memory serves, was focused on the Gulf of St. Lawrence. That is an area where the snow crab certainly does have a well-established cycle at least over the last 25 to 30 years. I'm not sur

Fisheries committee  I may turn to Dr. Pepin here in a second to verify what I'm going to say, but from a science point of view, my understanding of this fishery is fairly clear. It's all mobile gear that's used in this fishery. This is a trawler-based fishery. There are differences between the sizes

Fisheries committee  I'd have to verify the exact estimates or the exact confidence intervals on these estimates. Again, maybe Pierre can help us. That type of range wouldn't be unusual. We're measuring something that is over a vast ocean area and is a bit of a moving target to start with. But it is

Fisheries committee  Again, if you mean the physical structure of the department and how we're organized—

Fisheries committee  No, I know that. That evolves from time to time. But I wouldn't draw any correlation between any of those kinds of changes that we would make and the management system itself.

Fisheries committee  Yes, I see that at the bottom.