That's been at the root of a lot of problems over the last number of years, going back decades, particularly when the groundfish level in the gulf started to go down significantly and basically became a mere shadow of its former levels. We had people coming into this issue and going out, and there was great debate over when they're in and when they're out, etc.
The decision was made back in 2003 to say that was it; we were not going to bring any more people in or take people out. Everybody was on for the ride. So on the good times cycle, they were all going to make money, and on the bad times—like we're in now—people should just ride it through and expect it to go back up again shortly. That's our expectation and certainly our hope. Let people stay with it and provide them with flexibility so that on the downward cycle they can cut their costs by combining quotas, partnering, etc. That's where we're currently at. The minister has made it clear that stability of access and allocation is the policy. It's been a policy, actually, since 2004. That is coupled with the fact that we're trying to stop the endless fight over access and allocation and start having people focus on value and how to manage their own affairs so that they can maximize their net income. That's what we're focusing on.
As to whether or not additional effort is contributing to the declines, I'd say it's contributing to the economic challenges but not to the biological ones. This is stock managed on, as I mentioned, TAC and quota—TAC being the key point there—as well as on targeting mature males. We're harvesting a particular percentage of the mature males and doing that in a way that we expect to minimize the risks to the stock in the long term. That doesn't contribute to the biological cycles. It certainly adds questions and challenges to the economic issues, but we're hopeful that by changing our policies and allowing more flexibility, we can allow the individual fishermen to make choices and to cut their costs and have the opportunity to ride this out.