Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Chairman, honourable members of the committee, my name is Normand Cull, and I've been owner and operator of an enterprise since 1984. I first started fishing with my dad at an early age of nine years, and I can well remember.... I don't know whether some of you around the table know that we used to buy flour at that time by the 100-pound bag. I remember very clearly, when I was nine years old, my mom making a suit of oil clothes out of flour bags. It was cured with linseed oil, and the smell of the stuff is still in my nostrils now.
I won't take up too much of your time going through the details of my life as a fisherman, because that would take all day.
I've seen a lot of changes in my 50 years of being involved. I've gone from the boat to the mainland and from the mainland back again. My roots are in a fishing boat, and I guess I'll retire at that right now.
I've served on several committees. I was chair of the 3K north committee from 1997 to 2003, and I am now serving as vice-chair. I was a member of the northern shrimp advisory committee from 1997 to 2003, chair of the local fishermen's committee, and most recently a member of the Great Northern Peninsula Fisheries Task Force in the northern peninsula. I was vice-chair on the board of SABRI—that's St. Anthony Basin Resources Incorporated—and was nominated to serve another term at the 3K north shrimp committee chair but declined and took on the position of vice-chair.
Back in 1992, when a moratorium was called on cod, I and a lot of other fishermen diversified into crab, with which we did well for a few years. There were only very short seasons because of the small amount of quota. Most of us fished in boats ranging from 35 feet to 45 feet, because it wasn't necessary to have a bigger boat to fish and land the amount of crab we had to catch. Prices were very good in some years and not so good in others.
In 1997, after some lobbying by fishermen, me included, we were successful in getting a shrimp allocation known as northern shrimp. There were several meetings and seminars held throughout the province, in which some of you probably were involved, asking fishermen to gear up for what we called, or what was called then, the gold mine of the north. I can well remember—because I had no intentions, and probably a lot of other fishermen out there didn't have any intentions of ever gearing up for shrimp or anything like that—that we were approached by processors saying, “Boys, you're going to have to gear up for the shrimp because it's out there by the scores.” They said the same thing about that as they had with the cod fish, that there's hardly any way of ever catching it.
Fish allocation was harvested by boats from 34' 11'' to 64' 11'', and the ruling still stands. Since we became involved, we have seen huge increases in quotas and allocations, and this is why today we have a very nasty problem of over-supply and very low prices. As we all know, right now we're in a situation where it's hardly viable to even be at it, with the cost of fuel and everything else and the exchange in the dollar rates. Right now, I'm telling you, it's very difficult to even come out on top.
Ever since we've been involved in this industry--in shrimp, especially--processors have been telling us that our boats aren't big enough and that there are too many of us involved. We are fishing at the wrong time of year, when the markets are at their worst. This is why I think we need change, but I don't know if bigger boats are the answer.
I've talked to some fishermen, and they have said they cannot afford the boats they are in now, so how are they going to move to bigger boats and double the expenses, or sometimes triple the expenses? The most fearsome thing in the harvesters' minds on the issue of moving to bigger boats is putting the harvesting into the hands of the processors. This, gentlemen and ladies, is a very worrisome part in the harvesters' minds. I'll go into that in a little more detail as I go through.
Speaking from a personal point of view, and most of what I'm saying here now, gentlemen, is.... Although I've been involved in committees, I haven't had a chance to go around and meet with fishermen that I represent. I have only chatted with a few fishermen on the wharves and stuff like that, and this is why what I'm doing here, mostly, is from a personal point of view—