In answer to that, on May 2, 2006, in Ottawa at the CMAC, in its Standing Committee on Fishing Vessel Safety, there was a presentation made, and I know Melanie, Lisa, and George will remember this. I can't remember the name of the individual who did it, but it's on the record, and we've since corresponded through the NSBA on this particular issue.
I got a sour tone from our chairman, Victor Santos-Pedro, when I brought it up after this particular presentation was done, but it was a U.S. Coast Guard representative who gave the fatality and statistics report for a similar ten-year period on the east coast of the United States, from Maine down to the Gulf of Mexico. It was the identical time period, with the exception of an overlap of one year. In those statistics, he presented pie charts and graphs and everything showing the various types of fatalities and instances.
Other than today, I normally walk around at CMAC with all the stats they have presented to me. I made note at the end of his presentation that his stats were virtually identical to the Canadian stats for the same time period. Yet the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. government have absolutely no restrictions, regulations, or stability requirements for any fishing vessel in the United States, other than a carriage requirement for lifejackets.
When I made that point, Victor gave wind to me and didn't think I was very appropriate in doing it, but I felt the question could not go unanswered. The gentleman—whose name, again, I can't recall, but it is on the record—fielded that question. His response was basically that the American boat builders, as we do, wish to build a good product. They don't want to carry a lot of liability. They are trying their best to put out boats based on various volunteer regulations, such as ABYC and other regulations that exist in the industry.
However, it was cited as a conclusion in his report that the reason for these fatalities and the instances was due largely to operations in part and poor maintenance. Again, all the regulations in the world aren't taking care of that.