Thank you very much to our witnesses and to members of the panel. It was a very interesting and informative discussion.
I do have two points that I'd like to make, and maybe just one quick question.
There has been a lot of discussion on the hakapik. I just attended the meetings in Europe, as well. I think we have learned that this is one more domino in the line of dominoes. If you take away the hakapik, they're going to want to take away something else, and then they'll want to take away something else. It is interesting, though. We have some sealers who simply use the club or the hakapik, where the majority of our sealers use the rifle. Quite frankly, the rifle doesn't come under as much scrutiny by the Europeans. In Norway, where they have a mainly recreational hunt, they shoot all the seals. They use the hakapik on the seal that has been shot, and then they bleed it. Norway hasn't come under the same type of criticism that we have, although they have a much smaller hunt.
One of the challenges, obviously, is how the TAC is divided up. The comment was made earlier that there are about 600 sealing licences. I'm assuming that's in this area. And there are 200 core fishermen. Is that this area here? It would seem to me that there is probably some reason for DFO to look at that and maybe divide the licences up into sealing licences for industry participants who are core fishermen. I have no difficulty--and I come from a fishery riding--in giving the fishermen the first shot at it. We also have to consider that recreational aspect of it. There's a food fishery as well. Maybe they could be limited to a fewer number.
I'd like some quick feedback on that. The pelts would still be utilized, but if there is a food fishery and we limit that to five or six animals or something like that, would that reduce some of the pressure on the rest of the fishery?