I'll answer your question in two ways. First, we and the departmental scientists don't have the same reading or the same fears about the crab stocks in the southern gulf. For a number of years, we've been telling the department what we see, and that's fortunate because we've always said that, if there's enough crab, that's fine, because, in that case, the entire industry can survive.
We supported the proposals concerning the stocks. The department even said at the outset that it was the traditional crab fishermen who had wanted to overfish. I explained to you why we were forced to support the 20,900-tonne quota. It was so we could have the minimum we needed, that is to say 13,000 tonnes, but we didn't do that unthinkingly, Mr. LeBlanc. We've been monitoring this fishery for many years. Until the mid-1990s, the crab harvests were consistent with the analysis done by the department's trawl survey. Then the scientists came to see us to say that the situation regarding stocks looked a certain way for the following year. That was consistent with what our fishermen themselves had forecast.
I don't know what's happened in the past few years, Mr. LeBlanc, but there is a complete contradiction between the stock assessment by the scientists and what we're seeing in the fishing industry. Take this year, for example; it's abnormal. This year, the catches per unit effort by fishermen have been absolutely incredible. While they say they've used the precautionary approach to reduce the quota, the department's precautionary approach is designed to harvest big crab, to keep big crab in the water. Mr. LeBlanc, we've never seen these kinds of monsters in the water before this year. Apparently everything we did in the previous years to fish them was wrong. However, there's a problem somewhere. In short, the facts aren't consistent with what Fisheries and Oceans Canada is saying.
I'm asking the committee to help us in accordance with this other recommendation: we'd like the committee to ask the minister to put a serious task force in place together with the traditional fishermen and the first nations to solve the crab stock assessment problem in the southern gulf. This afternoon, fishermen will be explaining these matters; we divided up the task.
There are two things: if the stock can't support the harvest volume from recent years, from 2003 to 2009, our efforts absolutely have to be rationalized. That's where the overcapacity problem comes from. If the stock can support that, the problem is a smaller one. I hope the stock is sufficient. However, you can't always say that it's the traditional crab fisherman who will pay the bill, that they'll pay the bill if it can't be supported. That's really not right.
The snow crab industry is the best example of a fleet of fishermen who have become accountable over the years. Now we're really
on the brink of destruction, or death by a thousand cuts.
There is overcapacity in the snow crab industry, considering all the sub-areas and all that. That's what's happening.
I don't know whether I've answered your question.
We accept the department's official opinion, Mr. LeBlanc, but in accepting it, we have to ask you to conduct an investigation to see what is going on because it's going badly. Furthermore, in our opinion, the stock may not be doing as badly as that.