There were two parts to the question. One was more about the current models as they're being used in the mackerel stock assessment. The second was on the difference between the mackerel stock assessment and what harvesters throughout the Atlantic provinces are seeing on the water.
There's an ongoing concern with Newfoundland harvesters that we're missing part of the mackerel because of how the egg survey is focused in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence.
Mackerel are in Newfoundland waters in May, June, July and August. They don't just arrive here after the spawning season. They arrive in Newfoundland waters in May and June. One of our concerns is that those mackerel that are in Newfoundland waters within the spawning season are not being captured in the spawning stock biomass, which then affects the estimate of the biomass.
I have lots of different species on my desk, so I'm not necessarily going to go into the details of how the stock assessment is done. You have a total egg production estimate, and then you have to scale that up to the overall abundance that's out there.
There are two pieces. One is the egg survey. The second is the steps it takes to estimate out to what you think the biomass is.
Some of our contention is that the egg survey might be missing part of the fish. The second step is how you estimate that out to the overall biomass. That's the tricky part. You need to be able to scale it. When you have a small commercial fishery, you have more data that allows you to be able to scale the egg survey to what is out there in the water.
Right now, we have a few samples coming in, but it's really not enough to help scale to the size of the fishery.
I'm sorry. That's a partial answer.