Thank you, honourable member.
I know this is something that you're very concerned about and it's something I'm very concerned about, too. The explosion in the numbers of grey seals, I am well aware, is an issue that has to be addressed. We have done a lot of work on the seal file. Of course, what we do has to be supported by science. So there was a lot of work done on the science of the grey seal file, particularly in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. We can now say with certainty that the seal population is affecting the rebuilding of cod.
With respect to other species and the effect of grey seals on lobster and crab, we can't say with certainty yet, but the science is ongoing. We did some work on coming up with an acceptable method to decrease the number of seals in the Gulf of Lawrence, but I have to say, thank you for your patience, because it's something that we're still working on.
We've put a lot of effort into trying to open new markets and develop new products. I know that you're thinking that grey seals don't provide a lot of usable products, but we would like to get to a place where we can have full utilization of the animal, and work is ongoing in that field. Work is also ongoing on opening markets for those potential products, and for those products that are also available now. So we expect to hear from the Chinese very soon on this. The Chinese have come to Canada and inspected our plants, including their equivalent of our CFIA. We're expecting to hear back from the Chinese very soon.
But I do understand this is a big issue. It's an issue of biodiversity and it's upsetting our whole ecosystem. I'm confident that we will have something in place. I'm hoping of having something in place for the next—