Thank you for that question. It's near and dear to my heart.
I am 100% convinced that harvesters need to be consulted. In almost all cases, they have the answers, if they're asked and allowed to contribute. The issue with many of our stocks is that because of the lack of seal diet datasets, it is very difficult to access the existing ones and to get the Department of Fisheries and Oceans scientists and managers to include field predation on whatever species we're talking about. Only in 2023 did we actually get mackerel as part of the assessment of the predator. Gee, there's a revelation. Fishermen have been telling the department this for over 20 years, not just with regard to mackerel, but also cod, herring and halibut. It goes right down the line with the species. Therefore, it's imperative that we have input and that we get to contribute to what the predators are in the fishery.
That's not to say that fishing effort does not impact fishing stocks, but when we have a biomass and we have a model that's fed into it and we're the only ones who are fed into the model, then the output is going to come out wrong every time. Right now, we can afford a short amount of time to come up with a harvesting plan for pinnipeds. Very soon, and we may already be past it, we will be at a point where harvesting is not going to do it. We're going to have to start talking about cull. As harvesters, we don't want to have that conversation. We want to have the conversation of how can we harvest these. That's the solution from harvesters. We're at that time when the clock is ticking and we are getting to the point where these fish species can no longer absorb the predation.
Thank you.