Thank you, Chairs.
I indicated I'm not a member of the fisheries committee, so I don't want to make any statement, but I would like to ask some questions, if I may, for clarification from the Canadian side.
The killing of the whiteback seals is illegal now, but my understanding is that as soon as they lose their white fur, they're open to be killed. Is it correct to say that some 95% of harp seals are less than three months old when they're killed? This is a species that takes a long time to come to sexual maturity, so therefore it's quite difficult to judge the long-term effects of killing things so young.
I've seen figures suggesting that although there has been an increase in the harp seal population since the 1970s, that is an increase on a very low level from before. It's been suggested to me that at the current approach the harp seal population will be reduced by some 70% in the next 15 years. I wonder if you would comment on that.
Also, in a discussion we had last night, it was suggested to me that the seal hunt is still very important economically, yet figures I've seen suggest that in Newfoundland and Labrador it only represents about 0.5% of GDP, which compares very little with fishing and tourism, for example. So how big an industry is this, and how really important is it? It was suggested to me that a lot of fishermen rely on the sealing for their income, but I've seen other figures that suggest their income from sealing is only about 5%; it's not a huge amount. That may well be a crucial 5%, but I need to get a feeling for that.
We've had statements from the Canadian government saying that the seal hunt is carefully monitored, but I've also seen figures that suggested that this year in the Gulf of St. Lawrence the quota was exceeded by 40%, so it rather suggests there wasn't that close a monitoring.
Perhaps you could give me some answers to those questions. It would also be helpful to know where exactly are the markets for seal products. Where do they go? What exactly are they used for?