Mr. Speaker, I think it is time to clear up some facts.
The salmon fishery on the Saint John River was closed earlier this year in August because conservation requirements were not going to be met. DFO had to ensure that the maximum possible number of female salmon were present in the river to spawn. The closure affected all salmon fisheries including the aboriginal fisheries.
The requirement for the most successful spawning is one male per female. The ratio of males to females present in the river, as the hon. member admitted, was in the order of two males to every female. With this number of males salmon surplus to spawning requirements in the Saint John River a decision was made to take 40 hatchery grilse.
Removing the salmon from the fish collection facility was the safest way to do that particular test. Other methods would have resulted in a higher risk of mortality and could have had an impact on the number of females left to spawn.
I should also point out that they were hatchery males and therefore less important for spawning purposes than male wild salmon. There is nothing bogus about this decision. In fact conservation and science were paramount in that decision.
The facts of the matter are that DFO has the authority to undertake these types of activities under written permissions and licences granted in the Fisheries Act and the fishery general regulations.
These permissions and licences permit the specified activities to proceed in spite of closures. In removing the surplus grilse, DFO first gathered specific scientific information from each fish. Following such scientific scrutiny they were then provided to the first nations, which I am told had expressed an interest in receiving them.
Surplus grilse in the Saint John River were allocated to first nations in their 1997 communal fisheries licences. However, as a result of the early closure, the first nations were unable to reach their allocations for food, social and ceremonial purposes. Some first nations did not receive a single fish.
These fish were justifiably provided to first nations as a partial means to address the food fish shortfall without jeopardizing conservation objectives.