Thank you, Chair.
It's good to be on the fisheries committee. Fishing is one of our top moneymakers in Cape Breton.
I'm from Cape Breton, and we used to have at least 10 good salmon rivers once upon a time. I think we're down to one, the Margaree, and it's not that robust. We would hope to see it come back.
A few years ago I went to Norway, and I attended a world aquaculture conference. Canada was present, but also Scotland, Iceland, and Norway, of course. They are also homes to Atlantic salmon and they do a lot of aquaculture. One of the things I saw them doing there was a fish farm that raised halibut. They had these big combs, like aquariums, and they got their water from the fjords, and they raised it to whatever temperature they wanted. That's where they took the level from. But it was interesting how they were raising halibut there. At that time they were thinking that maybe that was the way to go for halibut, and maybe other fish species--with aquaculture. But I know there was also a concern about the wild salmon cohabiting with aquaculture in those regions.
My first question is dealing with those countries, Iceland, Scotland, and Norway, because they have the same fish, Atlantic salmon, and they have the same aquaculture. Do they have different rules and regulations on how they manage what's happening in the different regions and bays than we do? Do they have a different system? How are they doing? How are the Atlantic salmon doing in these countries? Are they ahead of us, behind us, or where is it at?