Thanks, Yvonne, for the comments.
One thing I want to mention is that when you look at the size of the vessels that fish the resource, if you look at the inshore fleet, you're dealing with vessels that are primarily around 65 feet. When you look at the offshore resource it's the larger vessels that are used; they have the ability to go farther north. This is one thing we've heard from the various presenters throughout the discussions we've had.
But one thing was clear with every presenter we heard from, namely, that everyone made a point of talking about and discussing the principle of adjacency. So to Yvonne's point, that brings in the aboriginal component. If you're looking for anything, if you look for a common theme throughout all of this, no one argued the fact that we need good management processes in place, but everyone agreed that adjacency was critical to this. As I said earlier, in 2007 that was the defining moment in the shrimp fishery in the province.
So for us it's based on adjacency. No one argues that we need good science to make what can be some tough decisions.
I don't want to lose sight of the fact that many of our communities, when you look at the offshore allocation, contribute to our communities as well.This is not an easy decision for anyone at this table. But the fair way to do it is to make sure that when you face the challenges, when you meet those difficult times, that everyone shares the pain. That's the reason I think adjacency is a principle.... LIFO right now is an outdated policy. I think that given the level of investment that the inshore harvesters have made since 2007, they still want to be the group that will have an equitable share as we make adjustments on the way down. They want their fair share of the allocation. That's all they're looking for here.