I condemn violent acts of any kind, as well as sending fishing equipment to the bottom of the ocean. I don't think any sustainability-minded fisherman would ever be advocating for something like that.
Just so we're clear, Mr. Battiste, the lobster resource can sustain all of our communities if we focus on sound management by the precautionary principle, and not on politics.
There's a bigger question here that needs to be answered: If moderate livelihood fisheries are intended to make money for indigenous people—it's been accepted by previous witnesses that part of the reason for commercial seasons, other than sustainability, is marketability—why would it not make more sense to fish in the highly marketable season?
Another way of looking at it is that the price that moderate livelihood fishers have been receiving for their catch this summer is somewhere around $3 to $3.50 a pound in Canadian dollars, but the price that fishermen are receiving in open LFAs right now, where the lobster resource has transitioned into a high-quality marketable product, is $12 a pound. If the people of Sipekne’katik left those lobsters in the waters of St. Marys Bay for another eight weeks, the value would increase fourfold.
What's important to know is that Chief Sack's nation possesses 15 commercial lobster fishing licences to fish during commercial seasons in different areas within Nova Scotia. I think the activity that's taking place there now is a bit of a double-edged sword for the people of his nation, in terms of deriving an economic benefit from the industry.