Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to my colleagues in the Liberal Party for allowing me to sit in on the foreign affairs committee on the NAFO issue. I welcome Scott Simms, who is joining as well. Thanks again for the opportunity.
I want to direct a question immediately to Mr. Balfour.
Mr. Balfour, you raised the issue of recent decisions of NAFO specifically with respect to Greenland halibut, cod, and two other species. NAFO just recently decided to increase the quotas for several vulnerable fish species in excess of what the NAFO scientific council had recommended. Specifically for Greenland halibut, a recommendation came in at 14,000. NAFO decided that 16,000 was actually the appropriate quota, not 14,000. So 4.5 million pounds of Greenland halibut will be taken in excess of what the scientific advice recommends.
On cod, not only has the World Wildlife Fund said that cod is being overfished as a bycatch, but we actually reopened the 3M fishery well after a 10-year moratorium, well above the scientific recommendation. That's NAFO's decision. The Government of Canada's policy is that we have now instituted custodial management on the nose and tail on the Grand Banks. Why doesn't Canada just invoke custodial management and set that decision right, to at least a minimum of what the scientific council's scientific advice recommends to be the actual quota? Why not invoke custodial management? Apparently we haven't.