Good morning. My name is Marius Duguay, and I'm a member of the ACA and a crab fisherman-owner. I started fishing in 1988, in the early years of the crisis. Now it's 2010 and we're in a full crisis. It's quite something. When I started, there was a competitive fishery and we used individual quotas to protect ourselves, so we wouldn't have to experience the same situation as the industries for cod, redfish and other species.
We've now wound up in a situation like today's, and yet we believe we've done everything, as my colleague Mr. Blanchard said; we followed all the fishing procedures, monitoring white crab and protecting females. Today we realize that it's produced no result and that the industry is in poor shape. As was said earlier, politics has created the current situation. We can't get around it; we're right in it. Those who don't want to see it are putting their heads in the sand, and that's too bad.
I'm going to talk to you about the quotas recommended in 2009. According to the recommendation by DFO officials, the 2009 quotas were 19,200 metric tonnes. The traditional industry recommended 20,900 metric tonnes, as you can see on the first chart. A departmental spokesperson told the CBC that the fact the traditional fishermen requested too large an increase in quotas last year caused a 63% cut in quotas in 2010. It's really disheartening to hear that. In fact, they always blame the fishermen, especially the traditional fishermen.
When my father started fishing, he was one of the early ones, around 1968. Today, when you hear these kinds of things... My father's no longer here, but I know he wouldn't have liked to see what's going on today. I'm glad he doesn't have to go through what we're experiencing because my father worked hard for the first 15 years to develop a fishery that the Acadians of New Brunswick and Quebec started to operate. Seeing where we've come today is really disheartening.
The department blames us for requesting a quota of 20,900 tonnes, whereas it recommended 19,200 tonnes, and it justifies a 63% cut in the media by blaming us. We have broad backs and this has been going on for a long time. The situation on the peninsula right now is disheartening. The region's main economy is being blown apart. Some politicians say they agree with us, but not on certain sharing arrangements because they have to take electoral considerations into account. It's disheartening that people use the industry like a life buoy for everyone in the fishing sector, whether they're lobster fishermen or cod fishermen.
As a result of this situation, we hope you'll support our demands as fishermen, as our representatives have asked you to do. We are here to represent the traditional fleet, but we also represent crew members. In 90% of cases or more, these are family businesses. Plants are lacking supply as a result of certain decisions. We haven't arrived at this pass in one year; it's the result of a number of years of political decisions. The elevator can go up, but one day or another, it goes back down. We told Minister Thibault that in 2003.
Today, we're in the basement.
We made the same presentation to you in Ottawa. Today we're here doing it again. We predicted what was going to happen. In 2010, it will be even worse.
Thank you very much for listening to us today.