Right, but what I want to focus on.... Looking at the research results we have and doing the specific actions we can do, I don't think there's much we can do about the last item you mentioned.
I want to focus on the issue of striped bass in the Miramichi specifically. Mr. Roach's committee recommended a greatly expanded catch of striped bass. I have a study here from Maine called “Interactions between striped bass...and the conservation of Atlantic salmon....” In the abstract it says, “Moderate to strong correlations were found between estimates of striped bass abundance and the return of Atlantic salmon to three of the four major New England salmon [streams]....”
I gather that in the Miramichi, decades ago the striped bass were almost SARA-listed species, and now, based on Mr. Roach's committee study, we're up to some 250,000 adult spawning fish. The predation rates have to be very severe. I'm cognizant of your point, Dr. Hutchings, that these fish may be in a predator pit and can't get out of it because of this imbalance.
Mr. Roach's committee recommended an expanded catch of striped bass, but the department—and he used a very nice word in a bad way—became way too conservative. About 12,000 fish were taken. The season this year was two weeks long with retention of one fish a day. Clearly that kind of harvest of the striped bass could have absolutely no effect on smolt survival, given the predatory nature of striped bass.
Mr. Taylor, were you disappointed in the very conservative approach taken by DFO, which I think was in opposition to the recommendation of Mr. Roach's committee?