Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans is no doubt aware that seals are showing up in community harbours where their presence was rare before. They have been found 11 miles up the Eagle River in Labrador feeding on Atlantic salmon. The seals are literally eating themselves out of house and home because they are starving.
The seal population is now over seven million. Would the minister not agree that a larger seal quota is needed, not only to save cod but to save the seal herds themselves?