Yes, thank you.
I'm a lobster fisherman from Chance Harbour, New Brunswick, and I fish district 36. I had my first lobster licence in 1964, so my memories go back a few years. I can speak from personal observation only, and from talking with the older fishermen. Never in the history of area 36 has the lobster catch been as good as in the last 12 to 15 years. There are unheard-of catches in area 36.
Here's a personal observation. For me, looking out the windows of my 160-year-old ancestral home, it was common to see several purse seiners with purse seines out on any fine winter's day in the 1960s. Along came quotas and dockside monitors. There are no more sardines, and no more purse seiners. Jump ahead to the late 1970s and 1980s. Several boats out of Chance Harbour are catching good catches of codfish. Along came quotas and dockside monitors--no more codfish. Perhaps you can see where this is headed. Quotas and dockside monitors mean no lobsters. To use a tried and true saying, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Instead, DFO wants to foul up a good thing by using Red Green's saying: if it ain't broke, you're not trying hard enough.
The increase in catch in area 36 may be attributed to many factors, some of which may be that we in area 36 gave up 75 traps, reducing the trap limit from 375 to 300 traps. We gave up two and a half months of open season. Enforcement of regulations has improved greatly in the last few years, thanks to the dedication of enforcement officers. And the decline of predators--codfish, hake, pollock, and catfish--has no doubt increased the lobster catch. All these factors, along with having a season instead of a quota, along with an increase in carapace size and no quota for dockside monitoring, help guarantee the sustainability of the fishery.
In conclusion, I say there should be no quotas on lobsters and no dockside monitors.
There's one more thing. A change that could be made in the lobster fishery is to go back to the owner-operator role. And I mean owner-operator, not some agreement that makes the operator look to DFO as if they were the owner.
Thank you.