As I said, we experienced this kind of drop in 1989-1990. At the time, there were 130 of us in the industry. When that happened, we sat down, acted responsibly and invested a lot of money in research. We gave a lot of money to biologists at Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and that resulted in significant advancements. Until 1994-1995, we were seeing record catches, or pretty well. But from then on, the Department did not let us reap the benefits of the effort we had made and the responsible actions we had taken. The resource allowed the Department to shirk its responsibilities. You may be thinking that I am constantly repeating myself, but it is a little difficult to ask fishers to behave responsibly if they are not going to be allowed to reap the benefits subsequently.
In terms of regulations and what could be changed, first and foremost, the resource has to be protected. That is the first thing, because without the resource, no one can make a living. For three years now in Quebec, the guys have not been covering their expenses. I do not know how it was managed. They based themselves on past years, when crabbers had a few good years, but that has not been the case for a long time now. It looks as though the resource is being managed based on things that happened in the past, on parochial squabbles. It seems that someone who is making money in the region does not have the right to do that. But all of that is over now, because no one here is making any money and no one has for at least three years.
That is more the case in Quebec than in New Brunswick because, since the Marshall ruling, the Quebec region has paid 17%, compared to 11% in New Brunswick, because the quotas were already higher. Starting in 1990, they were individual quotas. Quebec fishers paid 6% more for the Aboriginal communities. As a result, for three years now, these quotas have been incredible. The media are talking about it this year, but for three years now, the guys have not been meeting their expenses.
So, the resource is important, but so is the way it is allocated. So far, it seems the Department is trying to get rid of one enterprise to the benefit of another. We really do not know. It is difficult to understand precisely what the Department is aiming to do. We are sort of swimming against the current, without knowing what is going on, and we really do not know what to do about it. What regulations should be put in place? What exactly is happening with us? What is happening in terms of management? That is the source of the uncertainty. We do not know where we are going, and as a result, we are unable to plan.
The guys have made a lot of investments, but now we are wondering what we should do. We really do not know. I cannot really answer you as long as there is not more stability in certain areas. We will not be able to continue much longer; pretty soon, we will be facing a crisis like the one that hit the groundfish industry. The boats will be tied up at the dock and there will be no fish or shellfish left. That is the direction we are moving in.