I'll explain it out to you.
What we're asking for is a licence transfer freeze from one port to another, and that's only within the area that I represent; that's the four harbours I represent: Seacow Pond, Alberton, Tignish, and Hardy's Channel. The reason for this is that in those four harbours right now, counting the native fishers, we have close to 300 licences. There are 640 in all of area 24.
All we're asking is that a freeze be put in place until we can get a rationalization plan in place, so that if a licence comes up it can be purchased and shelved. Right now, if lobsters move out in the spring and they are, heaven forbid--and I'm not even going to say the price--at a low price, and Gardner Pinfold has already said it costs $2.95 a pound for a fisherman in P.E.I. area 24 to harvest the lobster. You're hearing them talking about prices that are not much better than this. We're scared there's going to be a fire sale. There's a lot of fishermen in our area who would like to buy a licence to bring them in. There's no sense in putting more effort into an area that's already at its capacity. We're just asking that a transfer freeze be put in place till we get a rationalization plan in place whereby we can go out and purchase licences and shelve them. Right now you can transfer a licence anywhere within the area. And they've been put on before. They have them in area 25 right now. In the north end area of 25...there were a lot of licences transferred up into that area, and their capacity got so heavy that nobody's doing anything.
Basically, that's what we're asking for.