Yes, Mr. Blais, on the first part of your question concerning the $1.75 as it relates in comparison to northeastern New Brunswick, I've had some conversations with fishers in the northern part of Prince Edward Island, which is pretty adjacent to the same fishing grounds. There is a major discrepancy in price for the fishers in northern P.E.I. to northeastern New Brunswick, where the traditional, well-established licence-holders and plants in that region secured the most high-end price.
From an educational point of view, I don't know the biology of your crab. As Mr. Sackton alluded, and Mr. Andrews, the larger sections do have a higher return in value in the marketplace.
With regard to the science part of it and the management, from our perspective they are in Newfoundland and 3K. Crab is a very mysterious shellfish. It goes through many cycles of moulting, where it moults its shell, and in that process, that's crab that's within the biomass of the stock, but DFO does not consider any soft-shell crab as being part of the overall biomass.
You know, as I said, from an educational point of view I'm not absolutely up to speed with the biology in your area, but crab is also a shellfish that at times does not eat, does not crawl. It buries up in the mud. Crab live in an environment with lots and lots of mud. If you have mud around your crab pots, you're going to have good catch rates.
I'm sure Mr. Andrews can validate the same comments I'm making. Sometimes you can set your gear and the catch rates are very poor, and then go back the next trip—say, after two or three nights' soak time—and the catch rates are phenomenal. It's a shellfish that's very fickle in its manner and in the way you can catch it.
But there's no doubt there's a serious problem on the management and science part within the southern gulf, because there's no way that 63% cut is a number that's even realistic for proper management within that industry.