Mr. Chair, I thank the member for the question. Certainly, it's a very important topic, particularly on the west coast. We don't get many questions from that area.
When we came into the department, just a little over a year ago, we were asked to look at a new groundfish integration plan, a plan put together by fishermen themselves—not by politicians and not by the department, but by fishermen themselves, coming together over a three-year period—so they could continue to fish the species they fished ordinarily and not be sidetracked or shut out because of an abundance of some other species, which would mean that the bycatch would be so high that the original fishery would shut down.
Through proper planning, proper reporting, and proper sharing, this has turned out to be a very successful fishery. We do have some detractors—we always will, I suppose—and some with very vested interests, but this has been a major success. Most people did exceptionally well, and we've also protected the rockfish. Mr. Bevan might want to elaborate on that specific area, on rockfish alone.
Does the project have some edges yet? Of course. But we said we would monitor it on a year-to-year basis and make changes during the year. We're finding that people are not frozen out of the fishery, and they are participating in many areas. I have all kinds of correspondence to show that we are doing better than we ever have because of this plan. Still, some refinements are necessary, and we'll always work on that, but we're certainly headed in the right direction.