I don't have very much to say. I think John pretty well covered it off.
I'll go next, then. I'm going to get back to the management part of it. John covered a big part of it; I'm not going to repeat all of that.
I'm not going to read my notes. I'll tell you who I am.
I'm representing the small-boat group in area 5. Area 5 runs away up to Labrador, up to Hawke Harbour, to Harbour Deep. I'll be speaking on those guys.
We have a problem with management of small boats. We've got no identification on our boats. We don't have any identification, so If you've got a sealer fishing in area 6 or area 5, or sealing--whichever you want to say--you're not going to know. If area 5 is closed, you can get aboard your boat and go out; how are you going to know where he's from without going aboard the boat, stepping up, and asking to see his licence?
We have the problem that when the larger fleets get their quota in, they go ahead and take part in our quota as well. That's not fair; that's not right. We need some kind of management put in place so that when the larger boats get their quota in, they're finished for that season. If you go and kill your moose, you're finished for that season; your hunt is over. That's the way it had to be to be fair. That's why it was brought in in the first place.
We had problems a few years ago. Seals went up offshore; boats went out, and when they came in, all the seals were taken. There were no seals for small boats, so we were left with no seals. I think Gerry would remember that; we had a little go with DFO and stuff, so we ended up getting our own quota. What's the point of giving us our own quota if they're going to continue to take the seals? That's no good; that's not working.
We talked about it and had meetings on it, beating it around. It's a pretty hard one to enforce, but what we thought we might do or suggest is a colour code. If I'm out in a 34' 11'', my licence is different from an offshore. I'll probably have a green or blue or whatever; the colour doesn't matter. When mine is in, I'm finished. When the small boats are finished, they can't go out. When our boat's quota is in, we're finished. We can't go out, but when the large boats' quotas are in, they can seal away. That's not fair. That's not right. That's got to be managed. That wasn't put there for that. That's double dipping. You're going to hear this again. If you're going around the island, you're going to hear this; this is the big one.
That's why I'm here today, pretty well. If there's any way, boys, we can get those regulations in, so we can.... There are all kinds of boats coming in under 34' 11'' with no registration, no nothing. They don't need a thing. There are all kinds of boats coming in.
You want to stop the boats? Freeze, right away. We want to ask for a freeze on boats, but what's the good? You can't freeze the boats if there's no registration; if you've got to register your boat, then there's a limit. There's a cut-off point. You say no, you're not reaching any more boats for sealing. I can't see another way to do it. Everybody now...they're building boats for going sealing on a 34' 11''. We've only got about 60,000 or 70,000 seals. There's only about a seal and a half each when we share it up. That's true. That's about what it is. With the licence as it is, if you count the licences and count the seals, it's about a seal and a half.
We need that. Our resources are pretty limited, boys. We don't have any big resources, I'll tell you that. It's pretty limited. There's a little bit of cod and a little bit of crab. They dealt with the seals a lot differently than they dealt with the crab, I can tell you that right now. The last fellow into the crab fishery never had a lot of crab; he only got a handful. But the last fellow into the seals got the same opportunity or better than a fellow who was in it all his life. There's something wrong there. That's not right. We were the ones who kept it going in the first place. Now everybody jumped in when the prices went up. That's not right.
If there's any way at all to enforce this regulation so that the small boats have their quota and the big boats have theirs, it would be greatly appreciated. In terms of the management side of it, that's it.
We talked about the hakapik; you touched on the hakapik. I think there's a proposal, Johnny, to ban the hakapik. We in the small boats talked about that. We said it's not a good idea to ban the hakapik. We don't use the hakapik anyway; we never used it up here, pretty well. But if you ban the hakapik, what's going to happen? Next you're going to ban the gaff as well. If we're going to give in to animal rights like that, and you ban the gaff, that's a safety issue, boy.
The hakapik is a wonderful thing to have on the ice if you fall on the ice or if your buddy goes out loose on a pan or something. What better thing would there be to hook him with, to haul him in, or something like that than a hakapik or a gaff?
If they get away with banning the hakapik, the gaff is going to go as well. You're not going to be able to gaff a seal. If you don't gaff the seal.... You won't be allowed to have it on the boat. It would be like a .22 magnum. You could bring a .22 magnum, and all of a sudden now you can't have one on your boat. You won't be able to have a hakapik or a gaff on your boat. What about if a fellow falls overboard, or if you get down on the ice? I wouldn't be on the ice without a gaff, and I'm a sealer. I've done a fair bit of it. I was sealing when I was throwing away the pelt and bringing in the meat. I was at it back that far.
This hunt has been pretty safe, I must say. We've been successful with regard to not having many deaths on the ice. Keep your fingers crossed. But with all the bullets that were fired and all the people running around the ice with gaffs and hakapiks and everything else, by God, boy, we pulled her off good the last few years, I've got to say. We had one little incident last year, I believe, down in the gulf, where a fellow hurt his hand, but that was because of a bad bullet in the gun, wasn't it?
Well, geez, boy, you know, that's pretty good. There were over 300,000 animals killed. Don't go fixing something that's not wrong. Don't try to fix it. Leave the gaff there. Leave the hakapik there. You know, there's a safety issue. It's not for killing seals. I wouldn't have it aboard for killing seals. I don't use it for seals. I use the rifle. Most people use the rifle because it's late now when it opens anyways, so you mostly have a rifle if you want to get them. I might go on the ice, but a lot of them get off, and some of them go like a fox, so you're better off. It's a lot easier to shoot the seals and hook them with a gaff. Don't ban the gaff, and don't ban the hakapik. Please, keep it in mind before any regulations draw down--because I know this proposal has gone in to ban it.
Now, that's our point of view on the small boats. I know there could be different views on it, but I think most people support the gaff and the hakapik. Yes, that's my greatest fear.
And one more thing too I want to say before I get off is about the processing. I don't know if it's federal, but I'm just going to touch on it--exporting pelts to be processed. Now, that sounds good for a few jobs, but by God, it's not going to sound good for a sealer, I don't think. The sealer is going to have to pay. The sealer is going to have to pay for processing those seals. He's not going to get the price. I think what they've been doing till now is shipping them out and getting them processed. That happened with the crab. You're going to see that; it's what happened with the crab, sure. You couldn't sell the crab off the island, and all of a sudden the price went down.
I think we'd better watch that one. I know legislation is probably coming through now for, I think it's 2008, is it? It's going to be, I think. So we're not too happy about that one either. We had a meeting to talk about that.