My name is Jérémie Cyr, and I am a fisherman and a hunter. I thank you very much for coming to the Magdalen Islands and I welcome you to our beautiful islands, as the chairman said at the beginning.
I will now speak to the recommendations we wanted to make.
Given that the current state of the seal population shows us that these populations are under-harvested, we recommend a significant increase in the total allowable catch, the TAC, to a level that is higher than the total population growth rate, particularly for the harp seal.
We recommend the setting of a TAC, a total allowable catch, for the grey seal in the Gulf of St. Lawrence that is higher than the annual population growth rate in order to allow for the development of a potential market for this resource and also to decrease the predation of this species, particularly of the groundfish stocks.
Given that the winter survey was intended to determine the abundance of young seals and does not allow for a precise count of the adult population, we recommend that the Department of Fisheries and Oceans carry out a survey to determine the population numbers in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, to identify the scope of the predation of groundfish, particularly of cod, and its prey by grey seals, and, finally, to define a strategy for the sustainable harvest of this resource.
We also recommend the implementation, in the short term, of a rigorous training plan that would eventually become mandatory in order to obtain a hunting licence.
We recommend that the Canadian government create a real policy intended to lift the American embargo on marine mammal products.
We recommend that government authorities put forward support programs for research into seal products and their production.
Finally, we recommend that the Canadian government pursue and intensify its efforts to fight against the actions and propaganda campaigns of the anti-sealing groups.
I will now give the floor to Léonard to conclude.