I'll start.
I have two related questions, and I think they'll be brief. They're mostly to give you an opportunity to expand a little on your observation that some of the downsizing of the runs was done after the fishing effort was completed, which obviously raises some questions.
I saw the numbers throughout the summer and I know we started at 17 million plus as an estimate. Early on, it was still around that, then it dropped to 15 million, then to 13 million. Then it went to 11 million, and now it's somewhere between eight million and nine million. The late run, for example, started out at 8.8 million and about halfway through the season it jumped up to 10.5 million, and then there was a lot of pressure from fishermen to increase their allocations and the TAC. Then it dropped back down to around eight million, and now, the last I heard, it was in around five million for the late run. Something somewhat similar happened with the summer run, and it never did materialize, I think.
I'm puzzled by that 10.5 million figure mid-season. I assume it was based on some sort of test fishing and other things that aren't completely the responsibility of DFO. How does that work? Don't we have a problem when we finally realize, after the season is over, that there weren't as many fish? Or were they somewhere and just didn't get past Mission? I guess that's my question.
Related to that, my recollection is that 2002 was a season when a lot of fish made it to the spawning grounds--millions. Could that have impacted at all on the run size in 2006?