The second question concerned the solution for protecting the resource. I can't help but laugh. I wonder why you found a solution for the aboriginals so that they could have crab. You freed up $500 million and bought licences for the aboriginal fishermen. I have nothing against that. You bought up quotas that didn't affect mine.
I'm going to answer your question on the way to solve the overfishing problem. I spoke to three lobster fishermen. It's not because the lobster fishermen come into my fishing area that we are at each other's throats. They told me last week that the solution to this problem would be for the government to release some funding, as it did for the aboriginal fishermen, and buy out the licences of fishermen who want to retire. They can tear up those licences. How many are there? One hundred in one fishery and 66 in the other? They'll live on what there is in the water and each will preserve their resource. I think that's the best solution to the problem. It's better than testifying before the committee, fighting to try to find solutions and saying that we have to prohibit others from entering our own fishery. You all heard what my fellow crew members said about the fishery. This is a solution that can be considered.
When the government released funding for the aboriginal fishermen, they approached my father to ask him to sell his licence, but he thought about us. He said that, if he sold his licence to the aboriginals, he didn't know what would happen to his children and his grandchildren. I talked about that earlier, with regard to fishermen. I answered that I was going to buy it, that I was going to put my head on the chopping block. I knew what was coming with sharing. I put my head on the chopping block. Half my head was cut off.
We talked endlessly about solutions. There are solutions, but you have to find them; that's all. I believe that, to solve everyone's problem, the government should draw on citizens' money, tear up licences and ensure that we limit ourselves to our own fishery and that we take care of it. That's what we've done. I'm not boasting. We've already seen crab decline. In some years, we weren't able to reach our quotas. No one came and helped us; no one found funding to support us. As one fisherman said, there were 50,000 pounds of crab in the water. We didn't cry; we took charge of our situation, and we decided to set quotas per boat, to pay observers, to pay for everything if necessary and to be profitable. Once we were profitable, the government kills us off. It's illogical.
There's a solution to every problem. We have to talk about it. The suggestion I'm making, that the government find funding for the fishermen, is hard to hear. The fact remains that, if there is no more resource, it's not the fault of the traditional crab fisherman. Even if you told me we're the ones who destroyed our resource, I would answer that's not true. It's the crab fishermen who constituted it. When we said we were going to set quotas per boat, there was enough for 130 fishermen. Today, the government has authorized 400 boats and 38,000 traps in the water. Joel Gionet said there isn't a single square mile where fishing isn't being carried on; that's too much. I would limit the perimeter from here to the chair. You have to tell the truth.