You are absolutely right. Twenty years ago, there were approximately 7,000 grey seals. Today, the herd has grown to between 70,000 and 100,000 seals. What is unique about the grey seal is that it lives within the gulf, along the coast. They can be found across the Gaspé.
Let me give you an example. At the tip of Forillon Park in the Gaspé, people have developed boating expeditions, seeing that there was some money to make there. They operate expeditions to do some grey seal watching. There isn't any cod left along the coast.
I would like to draw a parallel between the seals and the coyotes in the Gaspé. Deer hunting used to be a quite lucrative business in our area. At one point, scientists established a coyote population. They said that that would balance things out and that nature would do its work. The coyotes then multiplied and ate all the deer. That is a fact, you can verify it. The hunt was shut down for some 10 years. Snowmobilers and hunters made a concerted attempt to eliminate the coyotes. The hunt reopened four or five years ago. Things are going well, there are deer, and we are monitoring the coyote population.
As for the seals, they live along the coast, and there is no cod in the vicinity. A parallel can be drawn between the seals and the coyotes. As soon as a cod ventures close to the coast, it is eaten by a grey seal. Moreover, there is nothing much we can do about the grey seals. I think that we will have to rectify the situation and reduce the herd to what it was in the early 1970s. It just doesn't make sense. Once again, I insist, seals don't pay taxes, Canadians do. We should correct the situation. The grey seals are eating the cod we should normally be fishing.