Mr. Speaker, we are now in the seventh year of the cod moratorium in Atlantic Canada. However all scientific data show that cod stocks are at a lower level now than they were in 1992. A particular cause for alarm is that there are very few juvenile fish to be found.
Could the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans provide us with an explanation as to why, in the absence of a commercial cod fishery for seven years, cod fish numbers are so low? Is it possible that seven million harp seals might be a factor?