Mr. Speaker, the Fisheries Resource Conservation Council has recommended measures to protect Atlantic groundfish stocks. It says the growing seal herd in the gulf is taking cod at a rate that “cannot be allowed to continue”. The fishery is already threatened by foreign overfishing, which the government will not stop.
His own experts are telling the minister that the growth in the seal population is another fatal blow to the fishery.
Will the minister announce plans immediately to increase the total allowable catch for harp seals and will he tell us what other measures he intends to take to act on the warning of the scientists?