I'm someone who thinks politics is often necessary in order to reach decisions different from those we've seen in the cases of BP in the Gulf of Mexico or General Motors. For us, the fishery in the Gulf of St. Lawrence is as important as the automotive industry for Ontario. We sometimes need political intervention to help us. It's not certain that we can do it ourselves, as a result of our appetite.
Let's look at what's happened in the gulf. Mr. Blais, you're originally from the Magdalen Islands. The redfish or ocean perch disappeared 30 years ago, but I'm not sure the politicians made the resource disappear. As for groundfish in the gulf and the Atlantic, I would say, as John Crosbie did, that the politicians didn't do the fishing. In the Magdalen Islands, they had problems and the herring disappeared. I'm not sure the inshore fishermen or the politicians made the herring disappear.
I think we're often the victims of our desire to force politicians to manage things. The three examples I'm going to cite are examples of specialization.
People think they can exploit a resource to the maximum and live from it. That's not necessarily true. That's why the MFU has always suggested an approach advocating the fishing of a number of species and has pressured politicians to that end. That's the only way to continue living on the coast in a reasonable manner and to enable us to occupy our territory. If you take the fisheries away from the Magdalen Islands, I'm not sure people will occupy the land long. If you take the fisheries away from the Acadian Peninsula. I'm not sure they'll be there long.
All that has to be taken into consideration. I believe that's how we have to involve our politicians. We have to show them the fairness and the necessity of having natural resources that are well shared and managed. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans may have a management problem. I don't believe we have a politician problem, but rather a management problem. We need management that takes into consideration the reality of the place, the species and the ecological situation of the place. That has to be taken into consideration.
Even if the Fisheries Act is amended, I'm not sure that will change our attitudes overnight. That's why I think our problem is more than a politician problem. It's a problem of attitude, management and culture. We think we have to fish for lobster at $2.75 or $3 a pound. The situation can't work for long that way. Two years ago, crab fishing earned less than picking blueberries. I think that's our big problem. To date, we haven't been able to sell our product. We're not sellers; we're fishermen. That's somewhat the fault of the industry in general. Luxury products such as crab, shrimp and lobster shouldn't be given away. We're currently giving them away. We have a problem in that regard. We're putting a lot of pressure on the resource and on everyone.