Thank you, Mr. Hardie, for the question.
It is definitely good to be back on the other side of the committee. Putting on one of these things has been an interesting move in the last little while, but I do appreciate the seriousness of the topic.
I want to also acknowledge Ms. Morton's comments about how the federal government has handled the coronavirus in this country. I hope we have the same attention put to the focus on wild Pacific salmon.
In terms of the pinniped issue, I'm not a biologist. I think you should turn to the best science available and let that dictate which way we go. I would hope we would focus on issues that are human-caused and that we know are human-caused.
I talked about two frameworks in my presentation. One is watershed CPR. I think we should focus on conserving, protecting and restoring the lands, the watersheds that these salmon frequent and are their home. The other framework is harvest, habitat and hatcheries.
In terms of whether the government decides to get into shooting animals, I believe they will get the attention of the international animal welfare community and that will be a very difficult political issue to address, as we found on the east coast with this issue. That's an unfortunate situation when we start shooting other animals to protect certain values in our community.
I would like to see the government focus the opposite way, which is looking at the source of the problem around habitat and the issues the animals face, to increase productivity and to increase the opportunity for salmon to flourish on the west coast.