We believe that both concerns are valid. The market issue is very important, but we must still have something to sell. If we can't fish, we have nothing to sell.
All the proposals submitted to the department today, but also in June when it closed the fishery, are strictly intended to allow fishing activity while protecting right whales. We're giving fishers some of the responsibility for ensuring the survival of the whales.
We still believe that it isn't necessarily fishing that poses a risk to the whale, but the way that the fishing is done. We're working a great deal with the department, as has always been the case, and with fishers to ensure that they fish in an appropriate and reasonable manner.
In terms of right whale protection, fishing in an appropriate and reasonable manner means that fishers mustn't leave excessively long lines floating on the water. You must understand that, while hunting, a whale keeps its mouth open to filter the water. If a line is floating parallel to the whale, meaning on the surface, the whale will catch the line in its mouth. However, if the line is vertical and very tight, the line will touch the whale's nose and veer to the left or right. There's much less risk in the second case.
In addition, our fishers practise line fishing, which limits the number of lines. They attach six, eight or ten traps to a single large line that lies on the seabed, rather than using one line per trap.