Sure.
Out of the moratorium, here at FFAW we have a harvester-led science program. I'm sure Dr. Carruthers can speak to that in more detail. It's a sentinel fishery and it's harvester-led. It's been providing data input into stock assessment since the moratorium. That program has been very, very important to harvesters.
As we moved forward and the stock did move into a much healthier zone, even though it was still in the critical zone, we did see the TAC increase. We realized that the markets we had in the 1980s and 1990s weren't necessarily there right now. At FFAW we worked with a number of processors to ensure that handling on vessels was producing the highest-quality cod we could. We developed a set of protocols and ran a program for, I think, five years whereby harvesters in all areas harvested their fish, had a separate allocation and utilized these protocols to ensure that their fish was top quality.
We've been doing everything we can in that regard. We actually started the fisheries improvement project in 2016, I believe. Again, Dr. Carruthers can correct me on that. I was lead on that project for quite some time in my days in the science program here at FFAW. We did a lot of work. Again, there's the quality program, the handling, the working with plants on MSC certification and what it would take for our fish to be MSC-certified and be able to take advantage of those markets once we did have a TAC that was sufficient to land fish year-round.
Of course, in the 2000s, when we did have a very limited TAC coming in, the fishery was pretty much over in a few weeks. What we've been able to do, in instituting a series of weekly limits and management measures, is spread that fish out. We usually open late July or early August and run into a fall fishery, which right now is just about to close. We've been able to spread that out for the market.