I'd say it's very important, but I'd also say, as I mentioned a few times in my presentation, that we have to focus our conservation efforts, our restoration efforts, on the entire life cycle of the Atlantic salmon, and that means in fresh water as well as in the marine environment. As I said earlier, it's death by a thousand cuts. There is no silver bullet.
There are likely a number of factors in the marine environment. There are changing predator-prey relationships. There are changing ocean temperatures. There is changing salinity. There's over-harvesting at St. Pierre and Miquelon. There's over-harvesting at Greenland. There's no one issue, but until we actually know what those problems are....
The only way to find out is through a concerted, well-funded, multi-partner effort. Canada should not do it on its own. We should be working closely with the United States. We should be working closely with the ocean tracking network at Dalhousie University. We should be working closely with NGOs, such as the Atlantic Salmon Federation, that can bring resources and scientific expertise, and we should be working with NASCO, under the auspices of the International Atlantic Salmon Research Board.
If we would do more as far as partnerships, collaboration, and pooling of resources go, I think we would stand the best chance of figuring out what the problems are and then hopefully being able to do something about them. Until we know what the issues are in the marine environment, we have to do as much as we possibly can to make sure our rivers are in the best shape possible and are sending out as many young salmon or smolt as possible into that marine environment.