Rick Perkins at the Fisheries and Oceans Committee

On October 7th, 2022. See this statement in context.

October 7th, 2022 / 2:55 p.m.

Conservative

Rick Perkins Conservative South Shore—St. Margarets, NS

Thank you.

The fishing industry is concerned that the inability of the department to conduct consistent ongoing science data, biomass data and stock assessment data is slowly causing the industry to be at risk of losing the MSC certification, which will remove our ability to access markets around the world.

I note that right now only 58% of stocks have a biomass study even available, and that's a big factor in trying to determine whether or not you get MSC designation.

Can you comment on why the department isn't putting more emphasis on getting to 100% coverage so that we do not lose MSC status in those critical fisheries?

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