Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to the panel for being here.
I'm from New Brunswick, Miramichi specifically, where the river is famous for its Atlantic salmon. As you probably know, it's under stress. The numbers are going down. Close to 10 years ago I guess now, they spotted the smallmouth bass in Miramichi Lake, which is a tributary of the Miramichi River. Until now they've tried to contain it and they've also tried to fish it out, but they cannot eradicate it.
Dr. MacIsaac, when you have a problem you use everything in your tool box. To eradicate the smallmouth bass would cost about $1.5 million. The Miramichi salmon recreational fishery is worth between $20 million and $30 million a year. I know there's risk in using rotenone, but I think it has worked well, especially in small lakes where you can control the application. In my backyard we've used it to eradicate pickerel, which was also brought in by someone and it's also a lake that is a tributary to the Miramichi.
Where do you say we should balance the risk in eradicating a species like the smallmouth bass that would be very detrimental to the salmon?