Thank you, gentlemen, for coming forward again, and a special welcome to officials from the Department of Transport.
On the dynamic between Transport Canada requirements and DFO requirements, simply put, Transport Canada is strictly involved in safety and has no lens to view this issue from a fisheries management point of view; and Fisheries and Oceans views the issue strictly from a conservation and management point of view, with some reflection on safety. However, the requirement for fishermen to actually work within both sets of guidelines and work within an economic environment causes fishermen to adhere to vessel length and volume requirements of DFO and then try to match safety requirements as an afterthought--well, not as an afterthought, that would be improper--as a test of their skill as boat designers and builders.
When this particular strategy was developed by DFO in terms of putting in place both length and volume requirements back in the 1970s, there were no dockside monitoring or onboard observers. In fact, there were no quota requirements in most fisheries back in the 1970s.
Given the fact that we have a whole bunch of rules to enact fisheries management and conservation requirements, why is regulation of boat length and volume still such a critical factor for DFO in a management and conservation regime?