Yes. Thanks very much, Chair.
The Prince Edward Island Fishermen's Association appreciates the invitation and opportunity to address the House of Commons Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans and to speak to the important topic of traceability of fish and seafood products.
The PEIFA represents over 1,275 captains who make up our island inshore fleet. Our captains have significant investments in their operations and take great pride in being the first part of the supply chain, delivering high-quality seafood to domestic and offshore markets.
The fishery in Canada is heavily regulated, with conservation of the resource being a cornerstone to ensure that future generations can participate in this lifestyle and career.
We feel that the traceability of seafood is important in terms of keeping our high-calibre, international reputation intact; ensuring that lower- and higher-value species are not over-exploited; preserving international sustainability certifications; and elevating consumer confidence in the seafood products they purchase at the retail level.
Our ocean ecosystem must strike a delicate balance and maintain a food chain pyramid that allows all species to survive. Some of the plentiful but lower-value species cannot be overfished, or this balance will be disrupted.
For the past six years, the PEIFA has been developing an electronic log application that can be used by island fishers to replace the current catch data method of paper logbooks. Once implemented, the e-logs will provide real-time data on primary catches and bycatch. It is our understanding that for some species, current system information is not completely captured and summarized for up to six months after the closure of a particular fishing season.
The PEIFA has invested extensive time and resources into this app so that harvesters can access a unit that not only meets the Department of Fisheries and Oceans parameters for function, but is user friendly and offered at a reasonable cost to the fishers. It is critical that fishers be involved in the process of knowing where their catch data goes, who has access to the data and where the data is stored.
Molly.