Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, I alluded briefly to that in my opening statement.
We don't think the proposed amendments to the convention would have a major impact on the functional work or role of the Scientific Council. However, we note that several important considerations are covered in the amendment, such as taking a precautionary approach, such as recommendation of the ecosystem approach, and biological diversity. So there are a number of important aspects of the amendments on which the Scientific Council will be asked to provide advice and to which it will be asked to pay attention to in its work. That's an important consideration with these amendments.
Also important is the continued recognition of the Scientific Council as an equal constituent body, as a member of NAFO equal to the management body, which would be the commission under the amended convention.
Those are important considerations, which I think needed to be raised and of which the committee needed to be aware.