Thank you.
I'm still a little baffled about this issue that as late as 2021, and in 2019, DFO was saying publicly that seals don't have an impact on northern cod.
Dr. Vigneault, you said basically that you don't think they have a major impact because there other predators, but I think that tens of millions of tonnes of food, of fish consumed, has an impact. In fact you're probably aware of the witness who is next, Dr. McAllister. In his peer-reviewed science that was released in 2018 on the collapse of the northern cod, he said that “grey seals are major predators of Atlantic cod”. They are the major reason why it's not recovering, even though it's only 15% of the diet of a grey seal.
How do you mesh the fact that independent scientists have been saying for years that this is a major factor preventing northern cod from recovering, yet DFO continues to maintain that it's not?