Over the past few years, I've had the opportunity to work with the Réseau Québec maritime, which funded a very interesting interdisciplinary project. We worked in Chaleur Bay, in Gaspé, with a professional fishers group called the Regroupement des pêcheurs professionnels du sud de la Gaspésie.
It was a four-part project. We started with an ecological study of the state of the fishery and species at risk. We also did a sociological study, and we learned that there is no next generation of fishers, because fishing is too complicated. It's a high-stress, financially risky, problematic job. The situation is very worrisome.
For that part of the study, we worked with a leading sociologist at the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, an expert in analyzing crisis situations. She worked with the people of Lac-Mégantic, who were in shock following the tragedy there. She analyzed the fishery-related crisis with a view to helping the community mitigate the shock associated with such a volatile job.
There was also an economic analysis and a sustainable development analysis. Successful sustainable development absolutely has to involve all these experts. An interdisciplinary approach means integrating social science professionals into our action plans and our situational analyses in order to find solutions.