Thanks very much, Mr. Chair.
I have a couple of very brief introductory remarks, and then Dr. Brattey will take over the floor.
I will begin by saying thanks very much to the committee: (a) for undertaking this study and (b) for having us here before you today to look at northern cod, in particular off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Obviously, cod holds an immense economic, social, and cultural value for all Canadian communities, but particularly in the eastern part of our country, and as you know, DFO is heavily engaged in its management.
We felt that, as a way of starting the conversation around this table, it was very important to ground the discussion on northern cod with a short overview of what types of information we collect and what that information is telling us about the state of the stock.
Just by way of context-setting, I should note that the knowledge, expertise, and activities of the science sector provide the evidence base for the department's work and our operational decision-making. We are now about 1,500 people in the science sector across the country, in 14 major centres, and our expertise spans quite a number of disciplines, some of which you will hear from today. When you are in St. John's next week, I believe you will have an opportunity to hear from Dr. Pepin, who is one of our key experts in this area.
Our recent investments in ocean science are being put to good use. We have quite an extensive hiring process under way right now. We have engaged about 50 new staff in the last couple of months, with more to follow in that process. We had 11,000 applicants. We are going to interview about 3,500 over the next three weeks to come up with quite a talented pool of people to work in fisheries and ocean science, and we think this is just the beginning.
This allows us to improve our understanding of ocean ecosystems, and Dr. Brattey will talk to you a bit about northern cod in that context. We really feel that the work that is engaged in the broad sectoral links is critical to setting the evidence base for our decision-making.
You have been good enough, Mr. Chair, to introduce my colleagues who are here with us today, so I won't go any further in that regard, other than to say that Dr. Brattey—who has come to Ottawa because he knows that it is just a fantastic place to come to, and also for business—is one of our leading research scientists in the cod area. He is, by nature, a fairly modest person and certainly won't read his resumé to you. I can tell you that he has very deep and broad expertise. He has been in this field for quite some time and very much knows his stuff.
He will take you through a bit of an overview, and then we would certainly invite any questions or comments, either on the science or more broadly if need be, with my colleagues here at the table.
With that, I will turn it over to Dr. Brattey.