No, because DFO scientists have a formula—I don't know what they call it, but I'm sure some people here know—that makes it possible for them to compensate for the discrepancy between the two boats.
But that is not why we are taking action. We have a great many problems that date back many years. In our brief, there is testimony that mentions Mr. Cyril Burns, of Cape Breton.
Historically, Fisheries and Oceans Canada chartered fishing boats with skilled fishing crews and captains to inventory stock. At some point, I don't know in what year, but it is stated in the document—a fisher who presented himself with his crew would trawl 24,000 pounds of fish in a single pass. The scientists told him that he was causing them some difficulty because under normal circumstances he should not have been catching cod. So that was the end of it: scientists on the boats said that they would no longer agree to have fishers with them to inventory stock. We consider that unfortunate.
What I'm going to tell you might seem amusing, but it is as if people don't want to find any fish in the southern part of the gulf. We are not here for nothing, and we have not done all this work for nothing. It has been difficult and long. It is difficult for us to leave the Gaspé and come here three or four times a year. It is expensive and difficult, but we do it anyway because we know full well that what the scientists are saying—that in 20 or 40 years there will no longer be any cod in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence—is not true. It is not true at all. We, the fishers of the southern gulf, are like the people of Newfoundland, we see cod and we catch cod. We are not saying that there are the 200,000 or 260,000 tonnes there were in the early 1980s, but there is some. I think that Canadians might be able to use it. With the knowledge we have today, we could allow Canadians to enjoy the little fish we catch, because otherwise, the seals get them.