Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thanks to our witnesses for being here and starting off this interesting study looking at licensing on the west coast.
I want to start on the Pacific. Thanks for the overview; it's helpful.
I want to ask for a brief overview of how we got to ITQs on the west coast. Some would categorize their introduction as a move to privatization or increased efficiency. I want just a short explanation of how we got there.
Secondly, what's the vision going forward now, given that we have, some would say, fewer fish and increased external problems, such as climate change, ocean conditions, habitat loss, pollution, and it being even harder to fish with an aging fleet?
In that vision, are there alternatives being considered, such as terminal fisheries; owner-operator fishing on the west coast more like that on the east coast; and what the Harrison Fisheries Authority is doing?
Those are my two questions—a brief history in just a minute or two, because I'm limited for time, and then your vision in a minute or two.