The law hasn't changed. I can give you an example. Earlier, I said that one of my colleagues, a fisher from Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, went to sea with scientists and caught 24,000 pounds of cod. Normally, the scientists should have said that, if the cod was present in such large quantities, the cod fishery could be reopened. I said that there is no cod at all in August, just because there isn't any. There isn't any cod anywhere.
I know that the new legislation could limit the powers of the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Canada. We believe that making such changes to the legislation or to the powers of the minister is not the issue. We want things to change. We are talking about shared stewardship. I have worked under a system of that kind. Shared stewardship and co-management are the same thing. Fishers will have to have a real voice in decision-making rather than have decisions imposed on them as they have been for years. Scientists give the orders, and we have to comply.
On the ground, like the fishers of Newfoundland, that is why we want things to change. If we find cod, we should be able to calculate how much there is, so that we can determine whether we can allow fishers to take some of it. Otherwise, the grey seal get them.
I would like to tell you that at present, in the southern gulf, there are worms—not just in cod, but also in capelin, turbot and halibut. Turbot is a lucrative fishery, in fact, it is the second-largest fishery in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in dollar terms. It brings in $1 a pound to fishers. However, when you take out one, two or three worms from fish in the net, once the fish is frozen it leaves a yellow mark that makes it unsuitable for marketing. Then what do we do? Do we let the seals catch the cod rather than have the fishers catch them? Wherever I go, I ask whether taxes get paid by seals or fishers. I think that at some point we will have to make a choice and remedy this.