I can tell you that they did quite a job on the Grand Banks during that time. Between 1978 and 1986, for example, they had a total quota of 163,000 tonnes over that period of time. Their actual catch was 1,350,000 tonnes. The Spanish and Portuguese, of course, have really and truly been our biggest problem in the fisheries. There's been no doubt about that.
You have to understand that if you're an owner in Vigo and you have a $20 million to $25 million factory freezer vessel these days, and that vessel sets out....
By the way, I have to tell you that we have been seeking to confirm this information for the last three to four years through freedom of information and have been repeatedly rebuffed. The last correspondence we've had told us that if they divulged this information to us on the overfishing, and on the infractions and citations, and so on, that have been applied to the Spanish and Portuguese fleets, they would be damaging international relations between the countries.
But the fact of the matter is that when that vessel leaves Vigo to come to the Grand Banks, there are three objectives. One is that as the owner has this expensive $20 million to $25 million ship, the cost of it has to be amortized. There are 60 to 65 crew members onboard. The vessel has to make a profit. There is nothing that is going to stand in the way of these fishermen and that skipper.
And by the way, there's daily contact—even more, as a matter of fact—between owners and skippers to continue to do exactly what they've been doing for years.
I can assure you, ladies and gentlemen, that these two nations in particular, and others as well—the Russians are famous for it as well—have overfished with impunity. That's a fact of life. We have established contacts within the DFO system, on the scientific level, on the boarding level, and on the surveillance level, and I can tell you right here and now that the information we're passing on to you is absolutely the case.