According to Fisheries and Oceans' scientific assessment models, we doubled egg production by increasing the legal minimum size, which is normal. I explained at the outset that females reach sexual maturity when their shell reaches a certain length. Our lobster did reach that length, but lobster in many regions around the Magdalen Islands did not. That is the first thing that has to be done if we want to conserve the resource.
That is unacceptable. We can introduce all kinds of measures—for example, v-notching, which I referred to earlier and which does have some effect—but the fact is that these measures have too little impact, compared to legal minimum size. The federal government and fishers in the other provinces must take their responsibilities: lobsters have to be allowed to get bigger—in other words, reach the size associated with sexual maturity.
The FRCC then comes along and talks to fishers in the Islands about the fishing effort, which applies to an even greater extent everywhere else, where it is even worse. Once you have dealt with egg production, you start to work on the fishing effort. Fishing effort is a danger, but in the other provinces, it has emerged as an issue because of financial problems and the current crisis. That is what rationalization is all about.
We have rationalized our activities, not because of crises, but because of the need to protect the resource. It is time to refocus the debate on protecting lobster resources, in terms of both their size and the fishing effort, which will free up markets and address financial problems.