Thank you very much.
Not to boast, but I have to tell you that I've seen it all over the years.
The appearance of North Atlantic right whales in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence in 2017 led to a major uproar, both here and elsewhere, after several unfortunate incidents that resulted in mortalities. Those incidents involved whales becoming entangled in trap lines and collisions between these marine mammals and vessels in our waterways. Six years later, we still haven't recovered. That's a really long crisis for this day and age.
No industry was harder hit or more strongly blamed than the snow crab industry, particularly by the U.S., but also around the world.
On behalf of the snow crab industry, I testified that we shifted from our initial reaction of seeing right whales as a nuisance to devoting an unprecedented level of effort to saving a species at risk. I've never seen anything like it in my career. This is being done as part of a new approach, one that favours management plans and innovative research and development programs for fishing gear modifications. The goal is co‑existence, so that fishers can continue to fish thanks to exceptional management measures put in place to protect whales.
The collaboration on this issue between processors and fishers has been unprecedented. The processors created a program called the Fisheries Improvement Program, and we launched the Fisheries Improvement Project. The fishers' associations are carrying out numerous projects to experiment with fishing gear, including one using on-demand buoy technology.
During this process, I've also observed outstanding collaboration between processors, fishers and both federal and provincial departments. Our objectives are to establish annual fishing plans and to facilitate the implementation of other important measures, such as harbour breakouts. Along the way, we have had our disagreements and many long discussions, but we have always kept our goal of co-existence in mind, to give whales as much protection as possible while allowing our snow crab quotas to be captured to the extent possible. In my opinion, the work isn't over and the battle hasn't been won.
I have to tell you that I'm pinning a lot of hopes on on-demand buoy technology, more commonly known as ropeless fishing. I think that fishers have put so much effort into developing this fishing technique that they have a head start on the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. DFO has some catching up to do in terms of developing fisheries management measures using this new technology.
This year, 18 fishers used this technology, and they were able to fish in the closed areas where whales were believed to be present. For the first time, a significant amount of crab was fished commercially using this new technology. This is a major breakthrough that's creating a lot of interest in all quarters. It's a first, and in the not-so-distant future, it could change the way all trap fishing is done in closed areas, to protect species at risk like the right whale.
Our fishers are pioneering a revolutionary fishing technique that I believe will one day be used around the world.
DFO urgently needs to support the fishers' efforts by immediately implementing management measures and scientific analyses to prevent chaos at sea and expedite the growth of this new technology in as quick and orderly a manner as possible.
Thank you for listening.