The members of the Regroupement des pêcheurs pélagiques professionnels du Sud de la Gaspésie have always worked with the department and always provided it with data.
In the best of all possible worlds, we would like to be given some consideration. We would also like to see some financial assistance for fishers to compensate for their losses.
We also want to be able to engage in scientific fishing, exploratory fishing and sentinel fishing, not only to give back income to fishers, but also to keep them in the system.
If the mackerel fishery starts up again in five years, some fishers may not be around anymore, which will deprive us of their expertise. Others may not have a crew. It's a different trade than lobster and crab fishing.
This way, we'll be able to keep the businesses. The fisher helpers will continue to work with the captains, rather than leaving the sinking ship.
In the St. Lawrence, there is also scientific fishing of other emerging species. The members of the group could fish for beautiful, emerging species of fish of very good quality, which would be lucrative and would reduce the pressure on mackerel stocks for a few years.