At the recent NAFO meeting, all the decisions taken by the NAFO fisheries council were inside the scientific advice that was presented. For example, with respect to Greenland halibut, there was a great deal of uncertainty about the status of that stock, largely as a result of an inability for a scientific survey to be completed because of a breakdown of a vessel in 2008. Therefore, the scientific advice that came forward was a projection of the advice that was considered by the NAFO fisheries council in 2008.
At that point there was a decision by the fisheries council to continue the quota at 16,000 tonnes while requesting the scientific council to review the robustness of the methodology they used to provide prediction of the TAC recommendation for that stock. The reason was that the actual experience on fishing grounds, both within the Canadian zone by Canadian inshore fixed-gear harvesters and the offshore, again this year showed that the catches were at the highest level on record and there was the need to take a look at the basis for the calculation.
The scientific council reviewed six models, five of which, based on the data, projected an increase in the abundance of the stock. One suggested that there was a downward decline, which was the basis of the scientific advice received this year. Given the uncertainty, the fisheries council, on the initiative of the Canadian delegation, undertook a number of measures to improve the science for next year. These included additional science to be undertaken by Canada and others to determine the contribution of large turbot that exist in waters deeper than 1,500 feet, the level at which scientific surveys are currently being conducted, to come to a determination of how these larger turbot are contributing to the stock's bonding biomass. That's a major gap in this science.
There are issues in terms of the scientific models that use catch reports based on extrapolations of scientific observers on Spanish vessels that put catches at 50% higher than our conservation and surveillance records have shown our catches would have been in the NAFO regulatory area, creating a skewing in the model. There is also going to be work to develop a risk management strategy for the management of Greenland halibut, which would involve scientists, managers, and industry, in order that there be an improvement next year in the science knowledge of this stock. At the same time, the science advice received by NAFO showed that, over time, that stock was stable and it was a reasonable position to continue the TAC at 16,000 tonnes.
With respect to the 3M cod fishery that occurs on the Flemish Cap, the scientific advice suggested a range at which fishing could reopen and still see a rebuilding of that stock above 8,000 tonnes. The scientific advice included a spot reference point at 4,125 tonnes, which is very conservative, in combination with a number of management measures adopted by NAFO, again at the initiative of the Canadian delegation, to see that with this stock being reopened after a moratorium--