Thank you both for appearing in front of us today to help us with these new laws.
On our trip to the east coast a couple of weeks ago, we were in the Gaspé area and met with a group of fishers' organizations. I'm referring to the current section 2.1 of the Oceans Act. It ensures that indigenous rights are always respected in the process of establishing MPAs: “...nothing in this Act shall be construed so as to abrogate or derogate from any existing aboriginal or treaty rights of the aboriginal peoples of Canada”.
We met with one group that was moving away from bottom harvesting, like scallop fishing and so on, because it did damage the bottom. But right next door we met with a first nation and they had just been granted a licence to harvest sea cucumbers, for instance. How do we get around these different views and different approaches, one act being protected over the other?
Can you comment on that, Dr. Fuller?