That's where the problem lies. You confirmed that the harvest rate was really too high in 2007, 2008 and 2009, which presented a high degree of risk. It's like playing with fire; you wind up getting burned. It's as though you waited to get burned in order to react. The precautionary approach or the principle of sound management means that, from the moment you see there's a problem, or a fairly high degree of risk, you realize that, if you maintain that degree of risk, it will be much more serious in future. So then you consider cutting quotas.
That cut in quotas could have been spread over a number of years, which would have helped us avoid the present situation. Cuts in the order of 63% have a major impact. For some people, it's even a disaster. That's what's hard to understand. I agree that it's easy to say so afterward, but it's also a matter of common sense.
When you see any kind of problem, and when you realize there is a certain degree of risk, you have to react. It's like when a roof leaks. You don't expect it to leak a lot before you repair it. You repair it as soon as possible, when you see that it's starting to leak. That's somewhat what has happened. It's as though you believed that there was a degree of risk, but that it was not yet high enough and that you had to wait for the degree of risk to be very high in order to act. Unfortunately, if you wait too long, the actions you take may have much more significant impact.
This has impact on human beings. A little earlier we were talking about the decline in the species, but there's another species, and that's the people who work in the plants, the people who work on the fishing boats and the fisherman's helpers. These people are hard-up; they're stuck. They can't change direction and decide to do something else. A few days before the fishery opens, they learn they've lost their jobs. Ultimately, the fishermen have no choice; they have to cut their costs. The plant workers wait, wait and wait again. We're hearing about cuts in the order of 40% or 50%. We've been hearing that very recently. Suddenly, it hits, cuts of 63% are announced.
What's the logic in that?