Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'll follow up on Ms. Barron's question with regard to the U.S. You said you had studied this since 1985. I won't tell you what I was doing in 1985, but I was at a university.
Specifically, the pieces of information that we're looking for that would be very helpful are actual numbers. We know that in the 1970s, before any changes were made to protect right whales, there were around 250 animals, which rose to as high as 400, and we're now down to between 330 and 350. There's been this variation from 250 to 400 with those first changes to shipping lanes and fishing rules, which paid off, but what we haven't seen are actual numbers on the U.S. performance.
We know and see the right whale death numbers in Canada. Officials here said that in the last five years, the biggest category from necropsies was “undetermined”, that none had been entangled and died from lobster gear, and that only one had dies from crab gear. What kinds of numbers are there from the U.S.?
We're seeing this used perhaps as a trade barrier for us, and people want to use it for all kinds of reasons in the U.S. What is the American actual performance? Do they track it the way we do? Do we know how many deaths there have been? Do we know the results of those necropsies?