Thank you, Chair. I'd like to thank our witnesses for being here this afternoon.
I'm going to start with Mr. Sproul.
Thank you for your testimony. I can readily see, thanks to having the officials here earlier, the importance of the fishery sector. I mean, it's $7.6 billion in exports to 115 countries. Of course, our number one market, the U.S., alone is at $4.9 billion.
Mr. Sproul, you talked about a couple of things, not only your association, its membership and the concept of responsible actions you're taking. You talked about some of the concerns you have. One of them.... You referenced a fisheries ambassador and the notion that there's been no fisheries ambassador, leaving Canada kind of voiceless at international conferences and so on, and with no true champion.
Now, has that position been vacant for a while? Did Canada have previous ambassadors appointed?