I used to own a plant, but, given the circumstances, I had to sell it. The whole industry is sick. Today, we're simply fishermen and owners. There's a lot of talk about value added. On the Acadian Peninsula, the Japanese producer Ichiboshi manufactures value-added products. There are niches, and some things have been tried. It used to be about "staggering", but now it's in sections. There's one market for raw brown crab and another for cooked crab. There's also whole crab.
In the 1990s, when we were owners, we tried a lot of things and we invested a lot of money. The Americans came and simply wanted things to be done in a certain way. They wanted tunnels with automatic [Editor's Note—Inaudible]. The Japanese feel that since they're buying, they're the ones who decide. If they want a particular division, whether it's M, L, 2L or 3L, they want it done their way. In Newfoundland, they want crab for “staggering”, which is crab of poor visual quality. They buy a lot based on visual appearance. A lot of work has been done, but it's not easy. We're not saying that nothing can be improved. Improvements are needed. There's always room for improvement. We have to try something new. Work has been done and is still being done.
You also asked what could be done to prevent a situation such as the one we're currently going through. It's quite simple. Mr. LeBlanc said that, apart from sharing, the major problem is crab fishing overcapacity in area 12. The problem is quite simple. The sharing system was applied when it was time for it, and when it's not time for it... It was shown that it worked. In the late 1990s, we experienced these cycles, and we managed to cope with them. There are simply too many people involved in this kind of fishing. Otherwise, we wouldn't be here today. How to solve the problem? The solution is easy. It's unfortunate that not a single DFO official is here to hear us. It's disheartening to see that. This is an opportunity to understand the situation of the fisheries in Canada.
In Canada, the fisheries are sick for one simple reason: people are no longer connected to the reality of the fisheries in Canada. Journalists are here to listen to us, but DFO isn't here. That's incredible. It's disorienting for the industry. People may not think we've come here. Why is that the case? You have proof. We didn't invent the situation. We've gotten to the point where we wonder whether people really want to hear what we have to say. We're pleased to be meeting with you today and to ask questions. Do you understand what we're saying? We're fishermen, not public servants or politicians. We live from crab-fishing. We're testifying on behalf of the entire industry, whether it's the plants, the deckhands or everything that affects the industry. The problem has to be solved.
The government has to stop managing our fisheries in a political manner. That's clear. A politician says he isn't on the same wave length as we are with regard to sharing and that we're going to move on to something else. What can we do? You always say we have to set sharing aside, but that's not the real problem. Back home, the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. It comes up every morning and goes down every evening. The problems we're currently experiencing are as real as the movements of the sun.
We're coming back to the elevator that goes up and goes down. Some people are closing their ears right now and want to believe this isn't the real problem. It's the real problem. We have political management of the fisheries right now, across Canada. Where's the fish here? Right now, the redfish that supported the residents of the Acadian Peninsula has disappeared. There's no more cod or plaice. We can name them this way indefinitely. The fishing industry in Canada is sick because there have been political decisions and politicians say that sharing is not a problem. They tell us their position is different.
One thing is clear. Here a rock is a rock and a glass of water is a glass of water. We see that the industry people have not been listened to. Now there's a price to pay for that, and it's a heavy one. The industry is in poor shape and really in a state of crisis. It shouldn't be like for a fishery that's managed as well in terms of dockside weighing, at-sea observers, individual quotas and management. It was a model of its kind.
Mr. Moriyasu was seated here this morning. It's unfortunate that he and the other Fisheries and Oceans Canada representatives didn't stay. In 1994, after we had turned ourselves around four years earlier, he said that our industry was a world model, that we had worked jointly with them for it to become a world model. Mr. Moriyasu told me that the scientists and fishermen had developed a world model. Today I realize that these people aren't even in the room. Everybody's at the bottom of the hole and hiding. As for us, we're not hiding from telling the truth. The truth is there and we're going to say it. We hope our message will get through and reach Ottawa and that there will be concrete action.